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CHONGQING: Taiwanese singer Pan Mei Chen was locked up backstage for three hours in Chongqing, China, after a disagreement with concert organisers.
According to Pan's agent, Cash, she lost contact with Pan on Saturday, when the singer was in Chongqing for a performance.
"Whenever she performs overseas, we will always keep in contact via phone calls. However, I wasn't able to reach her on Sunday. She managed to contact and relate her ordeal to me on Monday," said Cash.
According to the singer, the disagreement started when the host began distributing gifts to the audience during her performance. Pan immediately requested that the host do so after her performance but was ignored.
"She felt that the organisers were disrespecting her performance and she decided to leave the stage and return after the gifts have been distributed. However, the organisers saw her retreat as a refusal to carry on with her performance," said Cash.
Pan was taken to a room for a talk and only realised later that the door was locked. Sensing that something was amiss, she requested for her bodyguards and assistant but to no avail. She too could not make any calls on her mobile phone as there was no signal.
Pan's fans, eagerly anticipating their idol's return on stage, grew impatient and made their way backstage. Perplexed by her disappearance, they immediately called the police who then released Pan from her 3-hour ordeal.
Pan was later escorted by the police and fans to her hotel and left on the same night. The singer is currently in Beijing.
"We are grateful to the fans and security," said Cash.
As expected, the organiser has a different version to the story as assistant general manager Li Wei Dong pointed out, "It was obvious that Pan was being a diva."
He revealed that Pan made several requests upon her arrival and questioned her attitude throughout her performance.
"She requested to stay in a five-star hotel and when she arrived at the hotel, she insisted that her manager check the place before making her way up. And when she reached the performance venue, she refused to get out of her car to proceed backstage. It was only after the host's cajoling that she made her way out slowly.
"Furthermore, when she was on stage, she failed to build rapport with the crowd and kept a long face throughout. She even declined flowers from the audience."
He shrugged off Cash's allegations and claimed that Pan was the disrespectful one instead.
"The host is a young lady and she was distributing the gifts when Pan turned around and told her, 'Auntie, can you stop distributing the gifts?'"
When reporters pressed him for a confirmation of Pan's detention, Li replied in helplessness, "Did anyone detain her? Our initial agreement was that she would be paid 60,000 yuan for five songs but Pan only sang three songs and subsequently failed to return on stage… We wanted her to make the necessary compensation before letting her go." - CNA/fa
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