American pop star Ariana Grande's camp has responded to criticisms by Korean fans about her Seoul concert.
Fans scored the pop star for spending only seven hours in Korea, arriving just three hours before her concert last August 15 and depriving VIP ticket holders the perk of watching her rehearsal.
Universal Music Group issued a statement to address various issues.
On the criticism that Grande's concert disrespectful to Korean fans, Universal Music Group said, it "is part of Ariana Grande's 'Dangerous Woman Tour' and the stage setting, choreography, setlist, and performance are the exact same in every concert around the world."
The company also refuted that Korea got the short end of the stick when the concert lasted only one and a half hours.
"The stage setting, choreography, setlist, and performance are the exact same in every concert around the world. That means the concert length is also same in every country," it said, according to AllKpop.
Korean fans also complained that in Japan, the concert lasted for three hours.
"First of all, the 3-hour concert in Japan is a wrong report. She performed the same in Japan for an hour and a half. On the third day of the concert, she did sing one additional song 'The Way'. As for the number of concerts, that depends on the size of the market. This part is decided by the event organizer," Universal said.
The company also denied that Grande was careless in her live performance during the show.
"She put extreme care into the vocals for the Korea concert. She has definitely put extra care into it by hitting the high notes she didn't hit in other concerts and also adding ad libs," it said. "If you go to Ariana Grande's Instagram, many international fans left comments asking why she put extra care in her vocals in Korea. We also considered making a concert DVD from the concert in Korea so we definitely put extra care into the performance."
About the perks for VIP ticket holders, the company said "watching the rehearsal was never a part of the VIP package. However, it's true that early entry to the event didn't take place."
