Lady Gaga was left $US3 million ($2.8 million) in debt when her Monster Ball tour forced her into bankruptcy.

The pop superstar launched her second series of live concerts in 2009 and has spent two years touring the show. Described as “the first-ever pop electro opera”, the tour was announced after an intended joint tour with Kanye West was suddenly cancelled.

Since the Monster Ball tour began, Gaga has performed the show more than 200 times, grossing over $US227.4 million.

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Gaga previously admitted her lavish stage sets and production costs left her bankrupt and she has now revealed she was struggling with a massive multimillion-dollar debt.

“I put everything in the show, and I actually went bankrupt after the first extension of The Monster Ball. And it was funny because I didn’t know! And I remember I called everybody and said, ‘Why is everyone saying I have no money? This is ridiculous, I have five number one singles’ – and they said, ‘Well, you’re $3 million in debt’,” Gaga said in an interview with Stephen Fry for Britain’s Financial Times.

While the tour clearly burned a hole in the artist’s pocket, album sales have skyrocketed in the past week with Gaga’s album Born This Way debuting at No.1 on the ARIA albums chart.

The much-anticipated album, released on May 23, is already approaching multi-platinum status in Australia and has reportedly sold more than a million copies worldwide.

In Britain Gaga ended Adele’s lengthy reign over the UK album chart with Born This Way scoring the biggest first week sales of the year so far.

The album shot to the top spot on the charts just hours after promoters announced that Gaga will return to Sydney for an intimate performance for fewer than 1000 of her diehard fans on July 13.

via Gaga’s tour forced her into bankruptcy.