Shanghai Gets Katy Perry and Lenny Kravitz; We Get Pitbull

Oh the shame ... once again it appears that a fine mix of international acts will tour China and skip Beijing in the process.

Katy Perry will play in Shanghai and Guangzhou this April but not in Beijing; her Super Bowl companion Lenny Kravitz will also do Shanghai in March and skip Beijing.

Even Taiwan pop sensation A-Mei doesn't appear to be bothering with a Beijing leg of her China tour, which hits Shanghai in May.

What gives, big international acts? Could it be the bad air? The notorious difficulty of dealing with local venues, who demand (and then scalp) the best few rows of tickets? Or could it be privileged Beijingers who don't buy tickets, believing they should be entitled to a free guanxi pass to every major performance in town?

Who knows. All we know is it sucks for live music fans to see major acts tour Asia and skip the capital city of China, what with its 21 million residents and ever-increasing disposable income.

At least one international act will indeed make a Beijing stop: Pitbull on April Fool's Day.

Thanks a lot.