Mariah Carey's Hong Kong show canceled

NEW YORK - Mariah Carey's manager says a financial default by a promoter, and not poor ticket sales or demands by the pop star, caused the cancellation of her weekend show in Hong Kong.

Carey, who recently finished her nationwide "Adventures of Mimi" tour, was to perform Saturday at an outdoor space in Hong Kong. It was to be the last stop on the tour after performances in Japan this week, her manager, Benny Medina, said Thursday.

But in a posting on its Web site, promoter Concerts Asia said the Hong Kong date was canceled because the 36-year-old singer had made "specific last-minute demands which we find wholly unreasonable and not with the best interests of Hong Kong, us and also the fans."

The promoter also said it had only sold 4,000 tickets, despite a "substantial" advertising campaign.

In an interview with The Associated Press, however, Medina disputed those claims. He said 8,000 tickets had been sold, and blamed the cancellation on the tour promoter's failure to pay Carey money that was due to her.

"If there were only 10 people in this venue, and this particular promoter ... had fulfilled his contractual obligations, we would be there. Mariah Carey loves her fans in Southeast Asia," Medina told the AP. "He has defaulted several times, right up into the last 48 hours. Literally we tried to hang in there with this guy."

The tour was Carey's first since the release of last year's multiplatinum "The Emancipation of Mimi" album, which won three Grammys. Medina said she planned only to tour the United States but got specific requests to tour Japan and then Hong Kong.

Medina, who called the tour the most successful in the singer's career, said Carey's team was talking to other promoters to see if the date in Hong Kong can be completed with another promoter. However, she is due back in the United States to film a movie and to work on her album.

"There's no question that Mariah is excited to go back to Hong Kong in the very near future," said Medina.