A year ago, Mariah Carey was riding high on the tails of her release of “The Emancipation of Mimi” and could do no wrong. Now her upcoming Hong Kong concert has been cancelled due to lack of demand and diva behavior.

To tell the whole truth, there is always a kind of push and pull between artists and promoters. The bottom line is that concerts are huge moneymakers, and both sides want to maximize their profits. So there is a natural tension between promoters wanting to minimize expenses and artists wanting maximum perks and profits. But what makes concerts workable is when the two sides find the happy medium that lets both sides share the pie.

When an artist is in huge demand, they pretty much get to dictate terms. Barring some outrageous compensation demands, almost every promoter is virtually prostrating themselves at their feet begging them to come to their venue. Why? Because without the draw of a big name artist, promoters are out of a living. They need the artists, and the artists need the promoters to set up the local venue. Generally, it’s a symbiotic relationship that works to everyone’s benefit - including the fans.

But something has gone wrong in Hong Kong. The promoter called “no joy” with only two days to go despite Mariah Carey’s star power. They claim to have sold only 4,000 tickets, and her “specific last-minute demands” - read, over-the-top diva behavior - were the straw that broke the camel’s back. So they called the whole thing off.

Did promoters set ticket prices so high so that not enough people were willing to pony up that kind of money to see her? Was there a problem with the venue? Was it simply a money dispute? Who knows. But this kind of thing is never good for an artist’s reputation, and her reputation was only recently repaired. It remains to be seen if it can survive another significant hit this soon…

For the good of her career, she and her people should have found a way to work this out. Even if it meant ponying up some money out of their own pocket to do so.

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