Lily Allen cancels her only New Zealand show

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The British singer is unwell and not able to perform at Auckland’s Spark Arena following medical advice. Frontier Touring says she’s “absolutely gutted”.

RNZ Life reporters

21 October 2026

4 min read

RNZ Life reporters

21 October 2026

4 min read

Caption:Lily Allen performs at Lollapalooza 2026 in Berlin on July 18, 2026.Photo credit:Pedro Becerra/Redferns

Lily Allen Performs West End Girl was set for Spark Arena on Wednesday night. Ticket holders received an email shortly before 10.30am cancelling the Auckland show.

“Lily is unwell and unable to perform following medical advice,” an email from Ticketmaster read.

Did you travel to Auckland for the show? Email us if you’ve been affected life.ent@rnz.co.nz

Allen posted to her “West End Girls” on Wednesday morning: “I am so sorry to have to tell you that I have come down with a viral infection and am unable to perform tonight”.

“I was really looking forward to seeing you all and am absolutely gutted to be letting you down.

“For those who travelled all the way here, please accept my apology.

“… I hope to be able to come back and see you soon.”

Refunds will be issued automatically within 14-21 days, the email to fans said.

Allen’s next show is down for Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Friday, 23 October then onto the TikTok Entertainment Centre, Sydney for two shows on Sunday 25 October and Monday 26 October.

On Tuesday, British synthpop artist La Roux, the opening act for popstar Hilary Duff, also pulled out of her Auckland performance due to sickness.

In a video shared to her Instagram Stories, the musician, whose real name is Elly Jackson, apologised to fans for the last-minute cancellation.

“I’m really sorry, but I’ve had to pull the show this evening,” she said. “I’ve had a fever for two days… I can’t get out of bed. I’m really sorry.”

Would-be concert-goers Emma and her husband flew up to Auckland from Christchurch on Wednesday morning. They were in town just a few days earlier for New Zealand’s only Olivia Dean performance.

Emma told RNZ she heard at least half a dozen other passengers talking about flying up just for the Wednesday evening gig.

“We were sitting in the lounge and I got the text notification from Ticketmaster - we were gutted,” she said.

“I was quite surprised because it was quite last-minute based on it being illness.

“We’ve been fans of Lily Allen for a while and we came up when she was last playing here seven years ago.”

She said while the live music scene was picking up in Christchurch, their hometown still didn’t lure big names so they were forced to fly up.

“To commit to travelling up for it is a big cost commitment and particularly for child logistics. We’ve got two young kids so bringing in the grandparents to babysit is probably the biggest bit,” Emma said.

The couple, who mark their 10-year wedding anniversary on Thursday, will be staying in a downtown Auckland hotel for the night. (Emma then managed to tack a few days work in town to the end of this trip.)

She said they had spent between $1000 and $1500 on the trip including concert tickets, flights, accomodation and incidentals like food and transport.

They will make lemonade from the lemons, she said.

“We’ll probably spend that money [refunded from the tickets] on a nice dinner and drown our tears in a couple of good drinks.”

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