Cancelled tour, AWOL and album out next week? It appears that Ava Max has vanished

Something bizarre is going on. Ava Max has seemingly vanished. Did you know that Ava Max had an album out next week? No, I doubt you did. I fear perhaps the only ones who did are the hardiest of “Maxipads”, the humorous name the 16 or so hardcore Ava Max fans keeping her subreddit alive refer to themselves as. Even myself, a firm and foremost pop music fanatic, had pretty much no clue that Ava Max was about to release her third album. And if I, someone who very much stanned a fair few of her songs in my time and someone who attended a brunch with Ava to promote her second record Diamonds and Dancefloors in 2022 had no clue – then it’s not looking good for the general public. Ava Max is about to drop her third album, the unfortunately titled Don’t Click Play, and she’s missing in action. She hasn’t posted on social media since July 7th. She cancelled the Don’t Click Play tour two weeks after it was announced. So where the hell is Ava Max, and why has she vanished mere days before her new album Don’t Click Play comes out?

Ava Max has previously been a hit maker (ish)

Ava Max came onto the scene in the late 2010s with her breakthrough single Sweet But Psycho. She followed it up with a semi successful debut album that featured follow up singles with decent success and streaming numbers like Kings and Queens and My Head and My Heart. She’s got a jokey reputation in pop circles for her obsession with sampling hits in her tracks, but even her follow up album – a bit of a flop – had two single that have streams in the 100 millions.

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But this year, all three singles from Don’t Click Play have a collective Spotify stream count of under 30 million.

She’s currently best known for, err, the Khia Asylum

is anyone even aware that ava max has tried to launch a new era three different times? she’s so beyond the khia asylum they have that girl in alkhiatraz

— broiled (@broiledcrawfish) February 10, 2025

Since the Khia Asylum became a massive meme, you can always count on its transient residents like Katy Perry and Dua Lipa being in there with its permanent resident since conception – Ava Max. Some of the Khia Asylum’s biggest jokes revolve around the eternal incarceration of ar Ava. This era has gone so badly some say she’s gone to “alkhiatraz”.

But for real – what is happening?

To have a major label album out in a week and not be promoting it AT ALL in over a week is truly mystifying. There are no TikToks, no Instagram posts. Before Rolling Stone acquired it, there wasn’t even an announced tracklist. Even her fans are puzzled. She cancelled her entire tour just two weeks after announcing the album, saying “Pushing back my tour is [the] most difficult decision I’ve had to make, but when I perform for you, it has to be of a standard that I’m happy with, and it’s just not there yet.

“Being on stage is my favourite thing in the world. In order to put on a show that you all deserve, I need more time. I promise you all it will be worth the wait. I love you all and can’t wait to see you. SOON, I PROMISE.”

Don’t Click Play

Rolling Stone confirm via a source that the album is still scheduled to be released on August 22nd – despite all of this pointing towards Ava Max delaying the release. The first two singles she released initially intended for Don’t Click Play got scrapped from the album for “personal reasons”.

The unfortunate title

Don’t Click Play is an unfortunate album title when you’re scrapping for streams and no one knows Ava Max has a new album coming out, let alone now she’s vanished. Because I fear that people will certainly not be clicking play, mindlessly following their orders without even knowing what’s happening.

So what could be happening? Part of me thinks it would be cool if this was a guerrilla marketing tactic to get people to not click play! Maybe it’s all meta! Maybe this is a new formula we’ve never seen an artist do before! Realistically, would I be writing about the new Ava Max album Don’t Click Play if she hadn’t vanished? I’ll be honest – no.

But I fear Ava Max isn’t in a position to be experimenting like that. My fears are that maybe the album needs to come out regardless of the fact it hasn’t produced a hit due to label commitments. It’s all just very puzzling. Ironically enough, it’s the only album she’s ever released that hasn’t been delayed.

I just hope Ava Max is, more than anything, okay. It’s hope nothing terrible has happened and I hope she’s taking care of herself. One week to go, and I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if she pops back up in the coming days to do some last min promo for one of the most beguiling album rollouts in recent pop music memory.

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