Sad! The year’s most interesting pop show has just been cancelled

Lily Allen was set to deliver her controversial concert tour to Auckland tonight. Now it's not happening.

Is it really only 50 minutes long? Does she truly not do an encore? Is she really up there all alone, rocking around in a replica of the house she shared with David Harbour? Is she singing her scorching allegations about an illicit affair with just a pair of legs, a red telephone and a drawer full of vibrators for company?

Another question: do we truly not get to scream, “WHO THE FUCK IS MADELEINE?” at the top of our voices along with thousands of others at tonight’s Lily Allen show any more?

The pop star’s now-cancelled headlining performance at Spark Arena was set to be the year’s most intriguing – and, according to those who have seen it, potentially the most controversial – pop show in a year absolutely chocka with them.

Allen is enjoying her third career renaissance thanks to last year’s West End Girl, a TMZ-baiting divorce album rumoured to rake over the steaming hot coals of her break-up with her actor ex. The album released last year to widespread intrigue and generally positive reviews.

But critics have called Allen’s West End Girl tour a love-it-or-loathe-it experience, with some laying into the theatrical staging, the brevity, the lack of hits, the curiously static framing and the fact Allen refuses to say a single word to the crowd while she's up there. One the other side, The Guardian called it a "gobsmacking portrait of marital betrayal".

“It’s my artistic choice not to talk to the audience,” Allen has said in defence of her tour. “The fourth wall helps with the storytelling. Most people find it to be effective ... I'm incredibly proud of it."

Sadly, none of the ticketholders to tonight's show will get to make up our own minds about this.

Earlier today, Allen cancelled her Auckland show, citing illness. "I am so sorry to have to tell you that I have come down with a viral infection and am unable to perform tonight," she said in a statement posted to social media. "I was really looking forward to seeing you all and am absolutely gutted to be letting you down."

Obviously, we all hope Allen is OK, she hasn't caught that terrible lurgy all of us got during winter, that she's not having to navigate our overwhelmed health system and is able to carry on to Australia, where she's due to perform six dates, the next in Brisbane on Friday.

But it's huge shame for all of Allen's fans enjoying a week of pop girlie nirvana. This week is the apex, a can't-miss line-up that began with Olivia Dean's late-but-great Saturday night show at the new Western Springs Bowl, continued with Hilary Duff's apparently joyous performance last night, and keeps going into the weekend with two Zara Larsson Spark Arena shows.

It's true that before today's cancellation there were many $160 tickets still available, that you could pick one up for around $60 on Trade Me, and that this is perhaps because advance press about Allen's tour had dulled West End Girl's lustre. "I'd actually forgotten about it," one ticketholder told me earlier this week.

Some fans have travelled to Auckland especially for Allen. Others wanted to rubberneck a Daily Mail headline-generating spectacle. "What the fuck," one disappointed Allen fan told me. "This was a real chance for millennial mums to get their angst out," another ticketholder said. A third simply said: "I feel sad."

Refunds are on their way. But nine hours isn't much notice for a cancellation. If you're trying to recover at work today by putting West End Girl on your headphones, be careful which songs you're singing along to. If you start chanting, "WHO THE FUCK IS MADELEINE?" with tears in your eyes, HR may want to have a word.