Korean pop star Rain and his former agency JYP Entertainment were ordered to pay ~USD8.1 million in damages to a Hawaiian event promoter for cancelling a concert in June 2007.
The judgement was made by a federal court on March 19th in Honolulu; both Rain and JYPE have stated their intention to appeal against the decision.
Rain’s Hawaiian concert at Aloha Stadium was cancelled a few days before the scheduled date; he is facing another lawsuit in LA for cancelling a concert just hours before the show (same tour as the Hawaii concert).
Rain’s spokesperson and JYPE’s representative have expressed their surprise with the verdict, saying that they expected themselves to win the case.
Frankly speaking, it would be very naive if they thought they could win… a concert was cancelled, and they don’t have a really good reason not to compensate, or at least share the damages with the concert promoter.
Asian fans might be shocked with the sum though; in Asian cases the compensations would normally for direct financial loses while neglecting other intangible aspects (e.g. punitive, reputation damage)… obviously it doesn’t work that way in the States.
[update] Rain and JYPE reached agreed on a settlement with Click Entertainment; the amount was not disclosed, but it’s expected to be much lower than the initial compensation [via KBS]
wow, that is a whole lot of money.
this will teach all kpop stars a lesson. they have a tendency to cancel concerts. rain has cancelled not just america concerts, he also cancelled concerts in shanghai twice. maybe its not the star’s fault, but they should be more careful when making the contracts with concert promoters, after signing the contract they are liable to hold the concert even if it’s the end of the world.
Maybe entertainers are so naive that they don’t realize…or care, just how much time and money goes into preparing for those concerts, and paying all the contractors, crews, booking agencies, advertisement, sponsors, and everyone else who set up and make these things happen. Honestly, sometimes these young entertainers are living in a fantasy world without a clue about how the outside real world works. They have their accountants, managers and handlers taking care of everything.
That might be true cole, some of the artists might be that naive. And as kyon pointed out, ignorant is not a good reason to not fulfil their contracts… they should learn more about what they are getting into.
The real victims were probably the fans; most would be disappointed, but they should get a full refund. However, some of the fans might suffer more in financial loses…
Rain’s Hawaii concert for example… there were fans flying from Asia to attend the concert, and they might not be able to get a refund for their flights and accommodations because of the late cancellation.
all the news is about rain… he’s just the entertainer… howcome JYP hasn’t commented… he was his manager… made rain take the hit.
i was a victim of the LA concert cancelation!!! however, i did get my refund rather quickly and painlessly b/c i purchased my tickets through ticketmaster. :P i would’ve been PISSED though if i were among the ppl who had trouble or never got their refunds.
it was pretty obvious why the concerts were all canceled. rain advocates can blame it on improper stage set up or whatever but it just came down to poor ticket sales. he’s not well-known in the states but was holding concerts at some of the biggest venues. the LA concert was suppose to be held at Staples Center…where the Lakers and the Clippers play AND where all big name concerts are held. well…rain isn’t big name but he and his ppl were pretty ambitious and overestimated his popularity (which is almost non-existent in the states besides among a small group of asians). i love me some rain but the whole fiasco was pretty embarrassing.
don’t blame poor tickets sales… why would Rain and his dancers be in LA on the day of the concert if he was going to cancel the concert…
so agree w/hope…rain got sucked into this mess because of
money-hungry jyp who should pay the whole $8M…it’s common
knowledge that jyp was po’d when rain didn’t sign him on again
so jyp had to make sure rain paid for that…in the law suit, rain
should have never used the same attorneys as jyp – yo, that’s
letting the fox in the hen house…btw who hired those useless
lawyers? bet it was jyp…poor rain—scripture tells it all—
matthew 4:10 “get thee behind me: jyp…
wow… charitee… I was justing thinking that… it could be all JPY’s doing …
vietgirl: were you really at staples? judging by your comments,
you couldn’t have been – rain begged to perform without his
usual stage – he truly wanted to go on with the show – security
personnel had to physically stop him from going out to speak
with the ppl waiting in line…as broken as he was, he did appear
at the fan gathering to apologize for what happened…BTW: who
knew to blow the whistle at almost the last minutes of stage
set-up about the unacceptable Korea UL wiring? any guesses?
bottom line – the concert cancellatiions were set-ups to take rain
down….back to the Good Book: 2 Thessalonians 1:6 “God is just.
He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you”…hmmmmm
Charitee that’s right… does the fire marshall usually work on saturdays… how did he know to check the plugs? I was there… I saw the security guards running… what a commotion it was… Rain was willing to sing w/o a stage… he was so upset at the fan meeting… I bi lieve in rain…
There are a few different stories on why the concert was cancelled, and to be frank as outsiders we can’t be really sure… unfortunately the ‘low sales’ rumour is the most popular speculation.
I do remember Rain meeting with some of the fans right after the LA concert was cancelled, so for the beneficial of doubt… I don’t think he deliberately cancelled the show.
However, Rain can’t escape for taking at least a bit responsibility for the cancellation.
to answer your question, charitee…i was not physically at the Staples Center but i was about to park when the parking attendant informed us that the show was canceled so we tried driving around the front to see if we could catch any drama but there wasn’t much of anything going on…just some ppl walking around with the same WTF expressions we had. however, i didn’t need to be right front and center to know what happened as i obsessively read all the news articles, fan accounts and forum posts following the incident. i do believe that the electrical/stage issues were real and yea…maybe that could’ve led to the cancelation of the LA concert but to cancel the rest of the other cities b/c of that reason??? no frickin way…especially when he already held a concert 6 months earlier in Vegas with the same equipment. we can debate back and forth forever on what we speculate happened but i still stand by my belief that he just couldn’t fill the seats…simple as that. i’m not saying that rain did anything intentionally…heck, i’m sure he didn’t know what was going down…that’s what managers and production companies are for but in the end…it’s his name and money.
and this whole jyp conspiracy theory just cracks me up…whatever makes an interesting story, i guess.
oh and to answer your other questions…yes, fire marshalls DO work on the weekends and yes, it IS possible for artists and crew to be prepared for a show that might potentially be canceled at the last minute.
Yeah, lack of ticket sales are the factor and it not hearsay his Hawaii concert only sale 20% seats.
Yein Jee..
“However, Rain can’t escape for taking at least a bit responsibility for the cancellation.”
Actully Rain do need to take full responsibility,cos he sign the contracts and that mean he’s part of it.
I think Rain&JYP should’ve settle this out of court 2 ago,but they chooses to ignore it and look what happen now.
It much been so embarrassed for Rain now,he was full of confident when he arrive in Hawaii and then he lost the lawsuit haha.
For all of you who where not at the Staples Center to witness what went on Shut up!!! If you weren’t in Court as I was… Shut up!!! And do you know what’s Funny… JYP’s lawyers did nothing for Rain in Court… Even Mr. Lee’s lawyer… Mr. Seitz said… Rain’s Lawyer did not defend him…
so let me get this straight, hope…you were at rain’s canceled LA concert almost 3 yrs ago AND you were recently at his hearing in hawaii? uh, obsessed much??? listen…we all KNOW what happened at Staples…no one’s arguing that rain wasn’t upset or that he intentionally canceled his concert or scammed his fans. i’m just saying that he and his ppl were overly ambitious by throwing it at such large venues where he couldn’t sell seats. why is that so hard to except? and the fact that rain didn’t get his own lawyer (or at least a good one) just adds to the fact that he’s just not the sharpest pencil in the box!
Vietgirl you of all people should understand how Korean entertainment business is different from USA… he’s just the entertainter… and he trusted his management staff to handle things correctly… but as you know he was set up… because he was leaving JYP… I’m not obsessed… if you know the correct facts… you would still be a loyal fan… if you still can’t understand…. ENGLISH… shut up!!!
Vietgirl: I really don’t care what you or anyone says or writes about him. You can go on and on about Rain, how he should take responsibility and so on, but if you sat in the court room and heard the truth you wouldn’t have this bad attitude about him. I guess you’re not a fan. Because, I tell you now, he got STUNG real bad by everyone including his management staff. So then, no matter what you say, I will always be by his side and trust him. I just hope that things will turn out better for him.
Oh, by the way, don’t BELIEVE
I really hate people who spread malicious rumors before finding out all the facts… that’s why I took the time to listen to the evidence in court… you Vietgirl move on to USA singers… stay out of Aisa…
Oops, I didn’t finish my statement.
Vietgirl: You shouldn’t believe everything what the papers write. You should know better that they report false statements and reports. Instead trust your Gut feeling.