Citing an inability to find a suitable replacement for Sinead O’Connor, the Pet Shop Boys’ gay summer outing, Wotapalava, has been postponed.
The 18-market tour was originally scheduled to kick off on July 13 in Miami and feature the Pet Shop Boys, O’Connor, Soft Cell, the Magnetic Fields, Rufus Wainwright, and DJs Junior Vasquez and Danny Tenaglia.
But, on the day the tour was officially announced, O’Connor surprised organizers by dropping out due to “unforeseeable family commitments”. A month later, news broke that O’Connor, who just last year announced that she was a lesbian, is set to marry British journalist Nick Sommerlad next summer.
“The last-minute withdrawal of Sinead O’Connor and the difficulty of finding a suitable replacement with such short notice have led the producers to believe that it would be unwise to proceed with the tour this summer,” reads a statement released by the tour publicist on Monday (July 2).
“We have made this decision with the greatest of reluctance, but it seems impossible to proceed without a complete lineup of artists,” says Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant in the statement. “We look forward to coming to America next year.”
Ticketholders can receive refunds at their point of purchase. CAA and the Pet Shop Boys are already taking steps to get Wotapalava on the road sometime next year.