Slovenia Won't Open Hearts, Ears or Wallets to Madonna

Queen of pop axes Europe gig, though no one can agree on why; Live Nation blames "unforeseen difficulties," local media cites nonexistent ticket sales

By Gina Serpe Aug 07, 2009 2:43 PMTags
Madonna, Sticky and Sweet TourLeon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

Maybe next time Madonna goes through a reinvention, she can transform herself into someone who's popular in Slovenia. Just a thought.

The pop queen has been forced to cancel an upcoming concert in the eastern European nation's capital city of Ljubljana, though no one can quite agree as to why.

A rep for Live Nation insisted that the Aug. 20 gig was scrapped due to "unforeseen logistical difficulties"—and absolutely nothing to do with the indifference of Slovenians, who, per the local media, haven't welcomed Madonna with open arms (and trust us, this is one star who knows from guns).

"There is no problem with ticket sales—absolutely," Laszlo Borsos, the managing director of Live Nation's Budapest arm, said (presumably with a straight face).

Someone may want to tell reporters that.

Several Slovenian news outlets claim otherwise, reporting that just 7,000 tickets have been sold for the 63,000-seat venue.

Though even if the reports of modest-at-best sales are incorrect, the choice of arena may have been overly optimistic in the first place. The city only has a population of 250,000, which means a full house would have required the presence of a quarter of its residents.

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At least she still has Jesus to keep her warm. But she didn't always have such a weird well-named match. Look back at Madonna' rich romantic history in our Madonna's Ex-Files gallery.