Ever had your favourite artist drop a teaser for a new song so fantastic you couldn’t wait to listen to it in their new album? Did you feel betrayed when that new album came out, and that song just didn’t make the cut? Imagine if that artist did that for not just one song, but an entire album. Not just an album, but a whole tour.
Musicians scrap much more than we think, and they probably scrap as much as they release. The creation of a song is a lot different to the publication of a song. There will always be one or two songs just don’t make it out of the studio.
Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and even Queen Beyoncé have all had to abandon ideas in their careers. To fan disappointment, these abandoned songs are usually amazing.
Let’s take a look at some times our favourite artists played with us way too hard.
Taylor Swift’s “Lover Fest” Failure
In 2019, Swift announced 17 dates for her upcoming tour titled ‘Lover Fest‘ to promote her seventh studio album, Lover. She had planned to play ten shows in Europe, five in North America, and two in South America. Eight of the shows were planned to take place at pre-organised festivals, while the others were scheduled for stadiums.
Ticketmaster unintentionally leaked the stage design when sales went live, revealing the center stage’s 360-degree love heart-design, which caused pandemonium among fans.
Unfortunately, the outbreak of COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the shows, and, months later, Swift announced she would not reschedule the tour.
The only resemblance of “Lover Fest” Swifties have had in retribution was with a live concert in the city of Love, Paris, where Swift sang acoustic versions of tracks from Lover.
In 2021, Swift worked on her eighth studio album, folklore, and wrote the song “mirrorball” in response to learning her shows had been cancelled.
Despite the cancellation of the tour, it allowed Swift to work on multiple albums and she came back stronger with “The Eras Tour,” which became the highest grossing tour of all time.
Ariana Grande Overturns Moonlight Title
In 2014, Ariana Grande started working on her third studio album, Dangerous Woman, which she had originally called ‘Moonlight’. Following the release of her hit single “Focus,” she decided to change the album name and rework the album entirely.
In preparation for the release, Grande hosted a live chat to give fans the time to ask questions about the upcoming album. One viewer asked why Grande changed the album title. Grande responded, “‘Moonlight’ is a lovely song, and it’s a lovely title. It’s really romantic, and it definitely ties together the old music and the new music. But ‘Dangerous Woman’ is a lot stronger.”
She added “I want to be empowering my fans. I feel like my personal growth is reflected in the sound. I’m really proud of it… To me, a dangerous woman is someone who’s not afraid to take a stand, be herself and to be honest.”
Britney Spears and the Abandoned Original Doll
In 2004, Britney Spears made a surprise appearance on the Los Angeles Kiis-FM radio station, premiering a new song called “Mona Lisa.” Spears announced that the new track would be part of her upcoming album Original Doll, set for release in the summertime.
Despite the announcement, the album has never been released, and there have been no plans to broadcast “Mona Lisa” on the radio. The project was apparently abandoned after Spears began to focus on her reality show, Britney & Kevin: Chaotic.
Years later, Spears has never even mentioned the project or “Mona Lisa” again, but fans still talk about the possibilities of the album coming-to-life, some even drafting album cover ideas.
Selena Gomez’s Tease of Seven Heavens
In 2017, Selena Gomez shared photos on her social media with a t-shirt that said “Seven Heavens,” teasing new music and a new era. She was even asked what colour she would describe the new album with, and she said, “A deep blue.”
Five tracks were even confirmed, with titles like “Bad Liar,” “Fetish,” “Feel Me,” “It Ain’t Me,” and “Wolves.” However, the album never saw the light of day, and was eventually replaced by Rare in 2020. Of those tracks, “Feel Me,” was the only one to officially reach the light of day.
Lana Del Rey Replaces Tropico for Shortfilm
Much like Selena Gomez, Lana Del Rey started working on her third studio album, Tropico, in late 2012, following the release of Paradise. However, the project was eventually scrapped. She later reworked many of the songs recorded during this period and included them on her third studio album, Ultraviolence.
However, Tropico did become an EP, despite having no official release. The EP features three tracks from Paradise, all of which featured in the shortfilm Tropico. Still, for serious Del Rey fans, this replaced album is a serious loss.
Lady Gaga and the Lost Artpop Act II
Lady Gaga had planned to release a sequel to her fourth studio album, Artpop, which debuted in 2013. She first introduced the album as Act II during a Twitter Q&A she teased that she had “lots of songs for Act II.”
Despite talking about Artpop Act II for many months, Gaga instead released the album Cheek To Cheek in 2014. Followed by Joanne in 2016, Gaga never again spoke about Act II.
The issue with the album goes even further back to the original release of Artpop, when Gaga created the Artpop app, designed to offer additional content. However, the app was quickly shut down, and much of the planned content was never made available.
Gaga still speaks about Artpop to this day, saying she’s not going to take demos she specifically left out, chuck them into a new album, and attatch the number two. Nonetheless, a huge loss for all the Gaga fans who were awaiting more Artpop music.
Miley Cyrus’ Missing Three EPs
In 2019, Miley Cyrus revealed plans to release three new EPs, which would eventually form a full album titled SHE IS MILEY CYRUS. The album was expected to drop in 2021. Each EP was going to be six songs long, forming different chapters to a trilogy that made up the full-length album. Cyrus planned to release the first EP “She Is Coming” in May, “She Is Here” in the summer, and “She Is Everything” in the fall.
Cyrus teased even more new music with a one-minute short on YouTube for the EP “She Is Coming,” which became the only one of the three planned EPs to receive an official release.
In August 2020, interviews hinted that the project had been scrapped, despite recording several tracks. Later that year, they confirmed that those tracks would appear on Plastic Hearts, Miley’s seventh studio album.
Justin Bieber Trashes An Entire Album
In 2015, Justin Bieber scrapped an entire album because he said his “music was moving in a different direction.” Bieber had recorded a large portion of an album reflecting a “darker place” he was in, but decided to scrap it due to a drastic change in mindset.
Bieber stated that he wanted his new album to reflect his new positive outlook, to tell his story, and to “give people hope.” Alas, in the same year, his fourth studio album, Purpose, was released with no recollection of the scrapped album.
The album he had recorded was in collaboration with musical icons Kanye West and Rick Rubin. Despite no teases to the album name or any tracks, it is insane to scrap an entire album.
“Telephone,” Lady Gaga, and Beyoncé (Part 2?)
Back in 2010, Lady Gaga released the iconic music video to hit track “Telephone,” starring Beyoncé.
Gaga originally wrote “Telephone” for Britney Spears, who even recorded a demo for the track. The song was intended for her sixth studio album, Circus, but didn’t make it onto the final tracklist. Lady Gaga later released the song with Beyoncé instead.
The nine-minute-long music video stars Gaga and Beyoncé as criminals who have fled a crime scene. The music video ends with a “To be continued…” message, but the second part has yet to be released.
Karma for Taylor Swift Fans
A widely discussed and rumored album amongst Swifties is Karma. Speculation surrounded the release of Karma after Swift’s fifth studio album, 1989. However, she scrapped the album after retreating from the public eye due to media scrutiny. A year later she released reputation.
In 2019, the whole Karma album got leaked, and had 16 tracks (including three deluxe edition songs.) The album had lyrical themes of revenge, anger, sexual desire, adulthood and breakups.
Swift paid homage to Karma in her music video for “The Man.” One scene in the music video features the titles of her first six studio albums spray painted on a wall. With them is the word “Karma,” which is written twice. Fans are still speculating theories about when this album could potentially drop.
What gives with all this teasing?
There are thousands of pieces of cancelled media out there. Whether artists were forced to scrap, or some scrapped for the better, our Spotify playlists are just a bit emptier without them.
