Ricky Martin Cancels Israel Show After Slow Ticket Sales

The Jerusalem Post reports that Ricky Martin officially canceled his first Israeli concert Saturday night, apologizing to fans and promising a visit to Israel at an unspecified future date. Full refunds were promised to fans who had bought tickets for Martin’s June 3rd show, which was moved earlier this month from the Rishon Lezion Amphitheater to the smaller Rana’ana Amphitheater due to sluggish ticket sales. Just 300 tickets had reportedly been sold for Martin’s Israeli debut when the change in location was announced, and fewer than 1,000 additional tickets were sold by the time of the cancellation. Martin had unintentionally caused alarm among some Israeli pop fans last summer after wearing an Arab headdress during a visit to Jordan marked in Arabic with the words, “Jerusalem is ours.”