When Sands Bethlehem Event Center announced three weeks ago that Mariah Carey, one of the top 10 best-selling music artists of all time, was coming to the venue at 8 p.m. November 20 to perform a Christmas show, we at Lehigh Valley Music prepared for a lightning-quick sellout. After all, it will be the first time Carey has played the Lehigh Valley in a career of nearly 30 years, and she has had 18 No. 1 hits, which makes her the solo artist with the most chart-toppers of all time, and behind only The Beatles overall.
Similar legacy artists Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks sold out the 2,550-capacity venue in a blink. Yet, more than two weeks after the Carey's tickets went on sale, the show still hasn't sold out. As of this morning, there still are 38 unsold standard tickets to the show available at The Sands' website, www.sandseventcenter.com, including a handful of pairs of seats. (That doesn't include VIP tickets, at $300-$849, that include access to "Mimi's Lounge" pre-show with complimentary drinks, appetizers and more.)
Not to worry - her show almost certainly will sell out in the next 3½ weeks until show time. But it got us to thinking - why wasn't Mariah Carey's show a blink-quick sellout like the others? Here are five possible reasons:
Her time has passed
Not likely. True, Carey is 47 and hasn't had a top 10 hit since 2009's "Obsessed", but just before that had a great run of chart-toppers such as "Touch My Body", "Don't Forget About Us", "Shake It Off", and one of her biggest hits, 2005's "We Belong Together", which was triple platinum. And her 2013 song "#Beautiful" with Miguel was a huge R&B hit, selling triple platinum. The Lehigh Valley absolutely loves legacy artists, and Carey is a big one. Carey is the No. 9 best-selling music artist of all time, and the third-best-selling female artist of all time, behind Madonna and Rihanna. Her song "One Sweet Day" (with Boyz II Men) still holds the record for 16 weeks at No. 1 nearly 20 years after its release.
She just played in Philadelphia in August
Carey just played Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center with Lionel Richie on August 16, so maybe everyone in the area who wanted to see her went to that show. The Sands show wasn't announced until October 3, so Lehigh Valley fans didn't know there would be a closer show, and now they don't want to pay to see her again. Which leads us to...
Ticket prices are too high
Also not likely. Yes, tickets started at $89.50 and topped out at $150, but the Lehigh Valley is getting used to the ticket price that tops $100 - as virtually all the best concerts do. And tickets for other high-priced shows at the Sands sold in a blink. Rod Stewart's concert at the venue in August 2016 had the highest prices ever for a concert at the event center, $150 to $200, and sold out in less than 30 minutes. Stevie Nicks' concert last November had higher prices than Carey's ($99-$135), and sold out in a record 14 minutes. Moreover, most of the tickets unsold for Carey's show are the least expensive ones.
It's a Christmas show
Even when she played Wells Fargo Center, her set list was odd. She skipped signature songs such as "Someday", "Emotions", "Dreamlover" and "Fantasy." With the Sands concert billed as a Christmas show, maybe fans fear they won't be getting all the hits. But Carey for more than 20 years has had big Christmas hits. Her first Christmas single, "All I Want For Christmas Is You", is her best-selling hit, selling more than 14 million copies, and among the best-selling songs of all time, Christmas or otherwise. She since has released holiday classics such as "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" and "O Holy Night". Plus, even in a holiday show, she's going to play some hits as well.
Her disaster on "New Year's Rockin' Eve"
For the people who didn't see Carey at Wells Fargo Center in August, the last time people may have seen Carey was her disastrous appearance ABC-TV's "New Year Rockin' Eve" a year ago. Singing in New York's Times Square in a sparkly sheer body suit in freezing weather, she appeared to be lip syncing, then gave up all together on her song "Emotion" when she said her sound equipment wasn't working. It was a most diva-esque appearance and train wreck at the same time. And before that, Carey's biggest moment was her season as a flighty, cat-fighting judge on "American Idol". Both those things did serious damage to Carey's image, but were they enough for people to choose not to see her live in an intimate venue?
(Allentown Morning Call)
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