Academic

Hannah Montana

By Gordon Smith, Christine, Hurt, Vic Fleischer, Fred Tung, Lisa Fairfax, David Zaring

What's your favorite Hannah Montana song?

Two days ago, I couldn't have told you the name of anything Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus) sang. But I walked around with a hot-pink wristband for three days this week to get tickets for her July 4th concert in Provo at the Stadium of Fire.

Last summer, we arrived in Utah just before the Stadium of Fire and watched the fireworks from a distant hillside. We decided that this year we would try to attend. We had no idea Hannah Montana would be the featured act, nor would we have cared. Hannah Montana? Seriously, we were more interested in the fireworks than the entertainment.

Then last week, as I was walking to work, my wife called me on my mobile phone. She suggested that I stop by the BYU Ticket Office and get myself a wristband. Hannah Montana was coming to Provo and the wristbands wouldn't last long. She was right.

As it turned out, the wristband didn't guarantee me tickets, and I didn't win the ticket lottery. But my wife did. When they finally got around to selling the tickets, the stadium was sold out in record time. (The online tickets sold out in 10 minutes.) This was the scene outside the BYU ticket office (that fellow with his arms up is telling people that they aren't going to get tickets) ...

A vibrant market has already developed on eBay. The last time Hannah Montana appeared in concert, people were buying tickets for as much as $1,000 apiece, prompting legislators in Minnesota and Tennessee to propose anti-scalping legislation. With yesterday's events, that debate has now hit Utah.

As for those songs ... today one of my 12-year-old sons told me that he had heard of two of her songs. One was called "Best of Both Worlds." Here ...

What do you say? Worth $1,000?

Full post as published by Conglomerate on April 06, 2008 (boomark / email).