MANILA, Philippines – Singer Madonna Decena confirmed on Friday that Manny Pacquiao’s March 21 concert in Hawaii, as well as the planned party and autograph signing, have been cancelled.
In a message sent to abs-cbnNEWS.com, Decena said it’s already final: there will be no Pacquiao show in Hawaii.
However, she said the cancellation was allegedly not because of low ticket sales.
“Hindi daw…I heard lang sa news, pero di ko nabalitaan ‘yun…pero final na hindi matutuloy .. Sayang, dami nagaantay samin dun..,” Decena said.
Decena, one of the talents of the boxing champion, said she hasn’t spoken to Pacquiao on the reasons why their show was called off.
“Di kami nagkakausap…’yun (low ticket sales) ang sabi sa news…pero I don’t know the real score. Kakalungkot nga e .. excited kaming lahat sa concert,” Decena added.
In lieu of a concert, Pacquiao’s fans were supposed to have a chance to party with the 7-division champion on March 19 in a venue to be set by Island Fire Production, the same outfit which organized the concert.
Pacquiao was also set to have separate meet-and-greet autograph signing event in Hawaii on March 21.
But on Friday, abs-cbnNEWS.com received information that even the greet-and-meet session and autograph signing of Pacquiao with his fans in Hawaii have also been cancelled.
Pacquiao held free victory concert-parties after his 2 previous fights.
Following his successful match against Joshua Clottey last March 13, Pacquiao and his band held a concert-party at the Dallas Rangers Ballpark where he and his supporters partied the night away.
The reigning World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight champion belted tunes with Lito Camo, Madonna Decena and the MP Band. “Journey” front man Arnel Pineda, who sang the Philippine National Anthem, also joined them.
Low ticket sales
On Wednesday (March 17), Honoluluadvertiser.com reported that promoters of the Pacquiao concert in Hawaii had called it off due to low ticket sales.
Quoting Ryan Chang of Island Fire Productions, the report said only 603 tickets had been sold 4 days before the show. Chang said the promoters needed to sell 2,500 tickets to break even, according to the online report.
The concert, dubbed “Manny Pacquiao Live In Hawaii Concert Celebration,” was supposed to be held at the 8,500-capacity Waikiki Shell on Sunday.
Ticket prices ranged from $25 to $150. The highest-priced seats, the report said, included a meet-and-greet with the Filipino boxing icon.
Chang told Honoluluadvertiser.com that he would suffer “about $50,000 loss” if it pushed through.
Honoluluadvertiser.com quoted Chang as saying: “I don’t know what to say about what happened. We thought Hawaii would appreciate bringing him in and 25 bucks is pretty cheap and reasonable. We needed to either pull out now or make about $175,000 to break even. I couldn’t risk dropping that much for my investors.”
