Pop star Rihanna may be reigning on the music charts, but the singer is still finding it hard to convince fans to pack her shows. Similar to her Last Girl on Earth tour last year, U.S. pre-sales of her 2011 Loud tour have been met with a sluggish response from fans. Now, Rihanna has been advised by her management to cancel domestic dates on her tour.
The news comes via pagesix.com, whose sources are saying that Rihanna’s people are scrambling to try and salvage the large-scale arena tour.
“It has been a big disappointment,” said a source for Page Six. “The ticket sales in big U.S. cities like Boston are so bad, they will barely cover basics like the lighting and other arena costs. Tour managers are begging local radio stations to do giveaways.”
According to the article, Rihanna’s Boston tour stop with Cee Lo Green is a costly disappointment, with only 3,700 tickets sold. Rihanna would need to sell 15,000 tickets just to break even. Sources expect more than half a million dollars in losses from the Boston concert.
Although Rihanna’s Roc Nation manager, Jay Brown, is making changes to the tour, insiders are saying that Rihanna isn’t ready to be headlining an arena tour just yet.
“She should’ve been doing theaters and smaller venues. She’s not ready to headline an arena tour,” said an insider.
Despite the setbacks, Rihanna is reportedly still demanding an extravagant production for the tour, which is set to begin in the U.S. in June.
“It’s the normal diva requests,” an insider said, “which is tolerated when you make money.”
Do you think Rihanna should cut her losses and just tour smaller venues? –nicholas robinson
