Lady Gaga's artRAVE thing was supposed to have been sponsored by AmEx but they backed out

Lady Gaga's recent artRAVE thing was meant to be sponsored and financed by American Express but according to Billboard they "backed out" a couple of days before it took place.

The whole thing was due to be streamed live by American Express as part of their Unstaged series but the deal was believed to have been 'scuppered' by "creative differences".

According to three exec­ut­ives who had a chat to Billboard about it all, AmEx still ended up being a silent partner in the event, ie they still covered some of the $3m pro­duc­tion costs.

Billboard asked AmEx for a quote about it all and this is what they said:

"American Express had been in dis­cus­sions to poten­tially live stream Lady Gaga's per­form­ance during Sunday's ArtRave event. American Express decided not to proceed with the live stream because of an inability to reach a mutual agreement on the pro­duc­tion of the event. However, American Express honored its com­mit­ments to Lady Gaga and her team, and the event was able to proceed without an official role for American Express.

Lady Gaga is an incred­ible artist and we hope to work together in the future."

So there we are.