Live concert: Very unpredictable!

According to insiders, the success of a show today depends largely on promotion.

10 days before the official event, the live show "Saigon simple love 2025" suddenly announced its cancellation due to poor ticket sales.

Regret

Currently, fans of Korean singer Baekhyun - a member of the group EXO are extremely regretful. Baekhyun is the first K-pop solo artist to achieve the title of "triple million-seller" thanks to 3 consecutive albums selling more than 1 million copies including "City Lights", "Delight" and "Bambi". In addition to Baekhyun, "Saigon simple love 2025" also features Vietnamese singers such as Truc Nhan, Bao Anh, Tang Duy Tan, Ricky Star, Rhyder, HURRYKNG...

Recently, the dominance of the two live concerts "Anh trai say hi" and "Anh trai vuon ngan cong gai" in terms of ticket sales has made insiders believe that the live concert market share in Vietnam is shifting unexpectedly and positively. That is, Vietnamese audiences do not hesitate to spend money to buy tickets to see concerts, even having to "hunt for tickets" when concert tickets for these two shows are always sold out within 30 minutes of going on sale.

A performance of the live concert “Anh trai say hi”. (Photo provided by the organizers)

Not only the live concert tickets of these two shows but also the individual live concerts are always sold out immediately after going on sale. Proof of this is the live concert of Ha Anh Tuan "Sketch a rose", which is always sold out. The two latest shows of "Sketch a rose", which took place on March 8 and 9 at Global City, cost from 2.8 million to 6 million VND, but tickets still have to be "hunted" to get them. Meanwhile, the live shows of Phan Manh Quynh, B Ray or Vu. (taking place at the end of 2024) also attracted thousands of audiences with sky-high ticket prices. The resonance of these successes makes people in the industry believe that "now is the time of live concerts and live shows".

However, the organizers of "Saigon Simple Love 2025" had to announce the cancellation of the show when there were only 10 days left until the show. According to the organizers, the show was canceled because the tickets were not selling well. Many people said that the show was canceled because the ticket prices were too high, while the names that attracted the audience were not many, not commensurate with the price that the public paid for the tickets. Previously, the show's ticket prices were announced at a price of millions or more while the participating artists had not been fully confirmed. After being criticized for being expensive, the lowest listed ticket price was 700,000 VND, the highest was 3.2 million VND, but sales were very slow.

Many people believe that one of the main reasons for the above situation is that "Saigon simple love 2025" took place on the same day as 2NE1 brought a concert to Ho Chi Minh City. After more than 10 years of "hibernation", the legendary Kpop girl group returned to the music scene, causing a stir across Asia. In comparison, the Vietnamese-Korean music night "Saigon simple love 2025" is somewhat "inferior". Previously, the Kpop Open Air #2 program also canceled tickets a few days before the show. The "kim chi idol group" announced the show's cancellation because the organizers did not fulfill the contract and were ambiguous in the matter of applying for a performance license. Up to now, many fans have still spoken out that they have not been processed or refunded by the organizers even though more than a year has passed.

Dissecting the cause

The scale and organization of live shows, concerts or just fan meetings in Vietnam last year had an impressive transformation, raising the standard of "following idols" to a new level.

Besides the magnificent live concerts that make the audience "fascinated", each brother of "Anh trai say hi" or the talented brother of "Anh trai vu ngan cong gai" also organizes fan meetings. These fan meetings have thousands of audience members, of course, to attend the fan meeting, the audience also has to buy tickets. However, compared to live concerts, fan meeting tickets are usually quite cheap.

Liveshow “Saigon simple love 2025” announced the cancellation of the event. (Photo provided by the Organizing Committee)

Baekhyun is also a familiar face in the concert market in Vietnam. Last year, Baekhyun held his first 2-day concert at Phu Tho Stadium, Ho Chi Minh City, making fans burst into emotions. However, Baekhyun is no longer as attractive as he was last year. This has affected the ticket sales of "Saigon simple love 2025".

The lack of ticket sales and lack of funds to carry out the show are not the sole reasons for the cancellation of the show. Even a world- famous name like Jennifer Lopez had to cancel her live show when the number of tickets sold did not reach 50%. Shows that lack highlights, famous artists or special content often have difficulty attracting attention. In addition, if there are many events with similar formats taking place at the same time, the audience will be distracted when buying tickets.

Quoc Thien is a singer whose voice is acknowledged by all audiences as "getting better and better", but the ticket sales for Quoc Thien's recent shows are not as expected. This is a clear proof that even a good singer will not sell tickets if there are not enough conditions to meet the needs of the audience. The two concert nights celebrating the 30th anniversary of singer Ha Tran's career were also sadly announced by the female singer to be "postponed indefinitely" due to lack of funds.

Experts explained that Beyoncé's Renaissance show in Pittsburgh (USA) in August 2023 had to be canceled when only 70% of the tickets were sold. The reason for the "stale tickets" is said to be that most of the audience had been allocated to Taylor Swift's 2 "sold out" concerts that took place more than a month earlier.

According to experts, in the context of the rapidly developing entertainment industry, audience trends and preferences are becoming increasingly diverse and constantly changing.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/live-concert-rat-kho-luong-196250210201954012.htm