The term is coined from the blue dots indicating available seats on Ticketmaster online seating charts.<\/p>\n
The group \u2014 which was originally comprised of singer Marie Frederickson and songwriter\/guitarist Per Gessle until Frederickson\u2019s death from cancer in 2019, and has featured Swedish singer Lena Philipsson as lead vocalist as of late 2024 \u2014 was set to perform a North American 40th anniversary tour, including an October 5 stop at LA\u2019s Greek Theatre, but had all its US and Canada dates canceled by Live Nation US this past Friday.<\/p>\n
![\"Lena](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/lena-philipsson-l-per-gessle-135681852.jpg\")
Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Swedish stars had been scheduled to perform the celebratory tour, which would have kicked off on September 10 at Pine Knob Music Theatre in Clarkstown, Michigan and ended on October 9 at White River Amphitheatre in Washington, with the show bill also including 80s\u2019 faves Taylor Dayne and Nick Lowe.<\/p>\n
According to Variety<\/a>, ticketholders received notice of the cancellation, along with notice that their tickets would be refunded \u2014 a small consolation prize for some international fans who had already purchased non-refundable flights<\/a> to see the European act in person.<\/p>\n Roxette\u2019s initial social media announcement of the change, which was posted Saturday on Instagram<\/a>, pointed to a postponement, rather than a strict cancellation. The original post reads, \u201cDue to logistics and hugely increased touring costs, Live Nation US has decided to postpone the Northamerican tour. Hope to see you some other time down the road. \/ team Rox.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the California Morning Report newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCalifornia’s top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n However, this was shortly followed up by another clarifying, more personal post<\/a> from co-frontman Gessle.<\/p>\n \u201cLena, I and the band are of course disappointed,\u201d posted Gessle. \u201cWe were really looking forward to this northamerican tour and US is by far our biggest streaming market. This decision was made by Live Nation USA, which they probably based on their own calculations. I hope we can play for our fab fans in the USA and Canada at some point in the near future. \/ P.\u201d<\/p>\n This is not the first case of the tour-obliterating \u201cblue dot fever\u201d plaguing musical artists<\/a> and their adoring fans.\u00a0<\/p>\n In early May, Post Malone canceled the first few weeks of his Live Nation-produced \u201cBig Ass Stadium\u201d tour with Jelly Roll, pinning his reason for nixing six early-on shows on a desire to finish recording his coming 40-track double album \u201cThe Eternal Buzz.\u201d<\/p>\n However, a Page Six industry source told the outlet that they believed the canceled dates stemmed from the dreaded fever, which they saw as spreading.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s contagious,\u201d they told Page Six.<\/p>\n A local news segment from El Paso, Texas, had reported a similar reasoning for Malone\u2019s canceled Sun Bowl show, citing that, \u201cTicketmaster showed a majority of tickets not sold\u201d and displayed the seating chart of the 50K-seat venue with blue dots galore.<\/p>\n Meghan Trainor<\/a> also appears to have been potentially afflicted by the industry bug.\u00a0<\/p>\n Though the pop start cited craving a better work-life balance after welcoming her third child in January as her reasoning for the \u201cGet in Girl\u201d tour cancellation, also produced by Live Nation, some online reports alleged that subpar ticket sales were partially to blame.<\/p>\n Zayne Malik was yet another star to be affected by the troubling trend. Though he pointed towards health struggles<\/a> as the reason behind halting his own Live Nation tour, Variety had reported that ticket sales had been \u201csoft.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Live Nation has shot back<\/a> against accusations of any sort of \u201cblue dot fever\u201d striking its artists.<\/p>\n After the concept went viral, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino began posting about the phenomenon \u2014 or lack thereof \u2014 on social media, issuing a scathing address to an X account called Ticketshelp1 that criticized Live Nation\u2019s earnings call and lack of ticket affordability.<\/p>\n \u201cThe focus is also geared towards more fans who are willing to spend more money on premium stuff instead of focusing on cheaper prices,\u201d the account had posted.<\/p>\n Rapino fired, \u201cNot our focus? We just sold millions of amp tickets at $30 \u2013 making a summer concert very affordable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Rapino also re-posted a LinkedIn story on with the caption, \u201cBlue Dot Fever is a scalper narrative\u201d \u2014\u00a0 and reposted a piece by music writer Dave Brooks called, \u201cShut up about Blue Dot Fever already.\u201d<\/p>\n Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters <\/p>\n California Post News: Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, TikTok<\/a>, X<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, WhatsApp<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Lena](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/l-r-singer-lena-philipsson-135682026.jpg\")
Redferns<\/p>\n
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