Singer-songwriter JP Saxe has canceled his upcoming fall tour after admitting that he did not sell enough tickets to make the tour financially feasible.
Saxe, who’s probably best known for his 2019 single “If the World Was Ending” with Julia Michaels, was aiming to pay venues with a capacity between 2,000 and 3,000 when he hit the road this fall in support of his recent EP, Make Yourself At Home. But earlier this week, he acknowledged the flagging sales on social media, saying that if he did not sell approximately 20,000 tickets in 48 hours, he’d have to cancel the run.
On Friday, Saxe revealed that he did not hit that ambitious goal, selling just “a few thousand extra tickets.” On TikTok, Saxe said, “I am beyond grateful to everyone of you who bought one. Those few thousand tickets are a reminder that being transparent in failure sometimes can be more powerful than the facade of success. They’re a reminder of how wonderful it can be to ask for help and watch a community come together.”
Saxe went on to apologize for canceling the tour, noting that all tickets purchased will be refunded “with a small side of immense gratitude from a dorky ginger Canadian.” He ended his video by saying, “I’m still a little embarrassed. I’m also feeling al lot of ambition to make sure this never happens again, and just to make the most honest music I possibly can.”
Amid the impending news of the tour cancellation, Saxe penned an op-ed for Variety detailing the decision, why he chose honesty over face-saving excuses, and the heartwarming-but-failed effort by diehard fans to salvage the trek.
“The circumstance: I didn’t sell enough tickets. Last week, my team told me we were going to have to cancel my fall tour. Ticket sales weren’t where they needed to be. The suggestion was: take the L, try again next year,” Saxe wrote.
“The industry standard in this situation is to offer some ego-saving explanation — ‘wrong timing,’ ‘new opportunities,’ ‘a scheduling conflict,’ ‘illness,’ ‘global warming…’ What you’re not supposed to say is: ‘Hey, I guess people aren’t really fucking with me right now.’”
Saxe added, “Very few artists want to be sleeping in their car eating ramen, but every artist wants to say they used to sleep in their car eating ramen. So if I really believe (which I do) that I’m going to sell out arenas someday… then I also have to believe in how much better it’ll feel when I get there — knowing I can tell the story about that one time, in the fall of 2025, when despite the support of a few thousand beautiful strangers on the internet… I had to cancel my whole tour.”
Over the past few years, artists at various levels have been forced to cancel tours due to low tickets sales. Like in Saxe’s case, these decisions are often related to overly-ambitious venue bookings, like when the Black Keys canceled a planned 2024 arena tour. Other artists to call off tours include the Fugees, who canceled a 2024 run, and Weezer, who canceled a Broadway residency in 2022.
