With Lady Gaga in town this weekend for her Joanne World Tour, and with Kesha having performed locally just last month, we’ve had divas on the brain. And we realized, the upcoming year will be the gayest concert year of your life. Throughout 2018, other acts queers go crazy for will setting into North Texas (or within driving distance), as they take their respective new projects on the road. Here’s a rundown of what you should be on the lookout for (with links to get ticket info). 
Katy Perry, Witness: The Tour. In a perfect world, Witness would be a different, better album, but even God herself, Cher, can’t turn back time on that bummer of an album. So, Perry’s tour, for obvious reasons, will be style over substance, even more than usual. With “huge puppets, giant basketball goals, confetti and robot Venus flytraps,” according to the Courier-Journal, Perry might even give this chintzy batch of songs new life. If not, there’s always the 2,012th performance of “Fireworks” and, from what I hear, a show of mercy from the One Above in the form of a surprise appearance from Left Shark. Carly Rae Jepson is her special guest. North Texas stop: Jan. 14, American Airlines Center.
Lorde, Melodrama World Tour. Where do broken hearts go? To drown in their shared sorrow at a Lorde Melodrama show, which will obviously become our new favorite place to reckon with old Grindr “relationships” gone awry as we immerse ourselves in the New Zealander’s career high and pop-subverting, Kate Bush-ish Melodrama. The Guardian, which reviewed her London stop, cautions that you should leave your artsy expectations at the door – this is a pop concert dressed in chiffon, sad strings, Lorde’s no-fucks-given dancing and, blessedly, a cover of Phil Collin’s “In the Air Tonight.” North Texas stop: March 18, American Airlines Center.
P!NK, Beautiful Trauma Tour. If P!NK doesn’t fly at a concert, is it still a P!NK concert? The committed aerial artist swoops into arenas starting in March and, TBH, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is her most Adele concert yet. After all, her new power ballad-heavy album, Beautiful Trauma, is rife with some of her most sophisticated vocal moments – who can’t wait to see her Trump protest song “What About Us” live? — that don’t necessarily need additional razzle dazzle. But hey, P!NK, if you wanna fly during “Raise Your Glass” again, by all means, work those silks, lady. North Texas stop: May 1 and 2, American Airlines Center.
Shania Twain, Now Tour. In our recent (very gay) interview, we half-kiddingly told country-pop priestess Shania Twain 15 costume changes would be ideal for her upcoming tour, launching May 3 in Tacoma, Wash.. (Hey, she asked!) Since she’s only human, don’t count on that many, but at least gay Shania devotees who have a strong desire to see Taylor Swift’s trailblazer in all things leopard print are in luck. “Gotta have a little flashback moment here and there, yeah!” she concurred enthusiastically. As she draws upon her Grammy-winning classic Come on Over, as well as her first album in 15 years, Now, the bound-to-be-impressive production promises plenty of opportunity for nostalgia and hot cowboys. That alone should impress everybody. North Texas stop: June 6, American Airlines Center.
Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Soul2Soul: The World Tour. It’s their love, it just does something to us. But that, all you country-lovin’ queers, isn’t the only reason to catch the Royal Couple of Country, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, on their first tour together since 2001, the debut Soul2Soul tour, when some girl named Taylor Swift was their, yes, opening act. Obviously, that tour was a massive success, because look what we made them do: hit the road yet again with their deep catalog of respective and collective hits, including “It’s Your Love.” And the production? Imagine Nashville in space. Like, why is there a futuristic theme? Is it the centrifugal motion? The perpetual bliss? I’ll tell you what’s bliss: seeing Faith Hill sing again. Nearest North Texas stop: June 26, Bossier City, La.
Taylor Swift, Reputation Tour. Approximately a billion think pieces will be written about pop star and cat mom Taylor Swift’s monster of a new album, Reputation, before her aggressive ruminations on boys and feuds tantalize arenas across the country. So, if you’ve got a blank space, baby, on your calendar next year and you’re obsessing over “Getaway Car” and “Delicate” and “Don’t Blame Me” and “Dress” — the famed scribe’s latest batch of pop sizzlers — as much as yours truly, just know it’s never too early to start thinking about which cat shirt you should wear to the show. North Texas stop: Oct. 6, AT&T Stadium, Arlington.

— Chris Azzopardi and Arnold Wayne Jones