Janet Jackson | music, the world & me

I haven’t posted in a long time and I’m sorry about this. The last half year has been an exciting one with a new workplace, but concert-wise pretty boring, so there was no real need in posting anything and I was too much into my new life that I didn’t want to dwell in the past.

This spring/summer looked like it would become one of the best concert times of my life! With Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey and Beyoncé on tour, three of my all-time favorite artists were scheduled to come to Europe and I got two or more tickets for each one of them.

Then, with excitement building especially for Janet’s tour, for which I had four tickets, the whole European leg of the tour was cancelled! What a letdown! I was so much looking forward to the shows, as I’ve always admired Janet as a live performer and I also love her new album “Unbreakable“. Additionally I looked forward to meeting a lot of Jackson-fans whom I hadn’t seen for years. And now all we’re left with are canceled tickets and flights.

I have to admit that apart from the disappointment I’m also angry. Angry because I feel there are some people who didn’t do their job properly and we are the ones to pay for it (Literally! I will lose a few hundred Euros and I know many others who will as well!). From the moment her shows went on sale, everyone I know was irritated that they had booked her for the huge arenas. With Janet not having had any hit in Europe for years and her new album not being promoted, we wondered how they wanted to sell enough tickets to fill these arenas. As there were seating maps available for most of the gigs, it was easy to see that our fear was justified. Everyone hoped that there would be some kind of promo like a TV performance or at least some new video clips before the tour started but there was nothing, nothing, nothing. My friends and me feared a cancellation of the tour, but as time went by and Janet already travelled to Europe and started posting videos to different cities saying that she was looking forward to the concerts, we had to believe that the tour was going ahead. So about three weeks before the first concert was supposed to take place, we booked our flights to Dublin, Düsseldorf and Copenhagen – only to find out a few days later that the tour was cancelled. “Scheduling problems” read the official excuse. “Scheduling problems” my ass! This tour had been set since October, it had been confirmed again after the rescheduling of the American leg due to Janet having an operation, Janet had already arrived in Europe… What a bullshit excuse! They didn’t even have the balls to admit their mistake. And Janet? – She didn’t have the balls either. For a few days she had no comment at all, after a shitstorm in the internet, she released a statement on her twitter page saying she would try her best to reschedule the shows as soon as possible. I believe in a rescheduling as much as I believe that the 2001 “All for you”-tour will ever be rescheduled as promised! There was some speculation that this cancellation had to do with her health problems earlier this year, but if that was the case, she wouldn’t be able to play her date in Dubai at the World Racing Cup on March 26th either. She has lost the trust of her European audience and I’m sure many will think twice to ever buy a ticket for Janet again. It’s a shame because she is such a great artist but right now all I feel is disappointment, anger and betrayal!

I’m just hoping the Mariah Carey’s shows will go ahead, because if I look at the seating maps, it doesn’t look much better! Her shows were not advertised either and her last charted songs are a few years ago as well. I don’t get this new concept of setting up a tour without any promotion. As we all know, a tour today is not the promotion for an album as it used to be but the album is more or less the promotion for the tour – but if you have no album out (like Mariah) or an album that is not selling well, does only have one single and there are no TV performances (like Janet), it’s difficult to market a tour all by itself – especially for artists that are legendary but not particularly “in” at the moment. Add the prices that they ask for, as for more and more concert you need to buy expensive seats, and you have half-empty arenas! Mariah’s ticket definitely was the most expensive one I ever bought with 235€ for a 3rd row ticket in Munich. I did this because I truly love her as an artist and can’t miss her, but I understand when people feel this is way too much and consequently don’t attend! As this is double the price I paid for Janet, I have hopes that the shows are going ahead because they will still earn more money. Plus the tour has already started. So please, have your fingers crossed – my first show will be on Easter Saturday in Luxembourg. Stay tuned!