It appears Mandopop king Jay Chou will be returning to Singapore, for the umpteenth time, to perform at a two-night concert in the National Stadium next year. Sure, that’s good news for people who stan the “Silence” singer… if not for the army of ticket scalpers ruining everything for diehard fans.
When official ticketing agent Sports Hub Tix launched the public sale of tickets for the Taiwanese singer/songwriter’s upcoming show, it didn’t take long for things to get messy. Superfans who attempted to get tickets met with technical difficulties; but somehow, a large number of scalpers were able to get their hands on the sought after passes.
These individuals were already selling tickets for the much-anticipated concert on various online marketplaces the same day tickets went on sale. On Carousell, they’re currently going for as much as S$3,000 a pop, even though they retail for a maximum of S$368 on the Sports Hub site.
It’s not a new thing — seems like most popular performers experience this issue in Singapore — but spending what could amount to someone’s entire monthly salary on a couple hours of song and dance isn’t really our idea of value-for-money.
Disappointed netizens took to social media to express their disappointment and chastise mercenary scalpers for robbing genuine Jay Chou fans of the opportunity to catch him live. (Although one could say the pop star stops by our shores pretty often for a gig — the last time he came was just last year.)
Nevertheless, a quick check on the Sports Hub site showed that tickets for certain categories are still available, so you can still see the Taiwanese pop star without having to dig into your vacation fund.
