Touch the Sky Tour
West was frequently accompanied by Fantasia, Keyshia Cole, and Lupe Fiasco on the tour, with a few additional appearances from originally scheduled support act Common.
On September 14, 2005, West's record label Def Jam announced dates across North America for the first leg of the Touch the Sky Tour, titled after his song from Late Registration (2005).
[10][11] Tickets for the dates were made available a day after the announcement and on December 16, West extended his stop at London's Hammersmith Apollo from one concert to three due to demand.
[15][16] After sometimes being vocal about his detractors, West made a statement in September 2005 about his motives for the Touch the Sky Tour, saying things have "never been about the critics or the album sales", rather than "about the fans".
[18] West told an MTV reporter that making "the world better" is one of the missions with the music and visuals, calling his pain "everybody else's pleasure—how I stress, how I was up all last night, how I'm about to kill myself because it's not perfect.
[2][19] West explained that he has a "really high bar and low tolerance", admitting his small gauge of good content made him become the artist he is and finalizing, "Basically, I think 99 percent of the shit is wack.
[19][22] Devlin presented West with a few sketches of her ideas, which he disliked and saw as inferior to the content on her website; eventually, they started over because only 10 days remained until the tour.
[2][20][25][26] The rapper wore six different costume pieces for the tour, such as an outfit consisting of a light-colored shirt and pants, a suit jacket, and white-framed sunglasses at the kickoff show in Miami.
[28] The staff of The Oklahoman highlighted Fantasia's "same soulful delivery" that made her "an instant favorite" with American Idol viewers and also commended Cole's appearances during the concerts.
[28] Reviewing the Miami kickoff show, MTV writer Shaheem Reid was impressed by West's outfit that made it look like he had "stepped directly out of a photo shoot" and heavily appreciated his ability to captivate the audience.
[7] Reid also praised Common's appearance, the lack of audio problems, West's song choices, and the vocal performances from Cole and Fantasia.
[7] Nathan Brackett from Rolling Stone applauded West's ability to work the crowd at the concert in Madison Square Garden and commented that "he may be only an average rapper and a spazzy dancer", but he seemingly tried harder than many other acts via actions such as going through four different outfits and "employ[ing] a six-person string section".
[4] After attending the tour stop at East Lansing's Michigan State University Breslin Center, Chicago music writer Tre G described it as "greatest thing [he] had ever seen at the time", feeling impressed by the lighting and visuals, saying it was clear West had consistently been "all about production".
[27] Jason Allen provided a review of the show at San Jose's HP Pavilion for IGN, appreciating Lupe Fiasco's presence and Cole's passionate vocals that he compared to Mary J. Blige.
Allen was taken aback by Fantasia's visual appearance and high energy, while he lauded the stage design's lighting and West's performance, being impressed after having once doubted him.
