Illegal Bruno Mars ticket resale reaches $2,300

Tickets to the upcoming Bruno Mars concert in Seoul are being scalped at six times the usual rate and to combat illegal ticket sales, the concert organizer Live Nation announced Thursday through its official social media that it has found more than 60 tickets that were dealt illegally and decided to cancel the initial transactions.

Dubbed “Hyundai Card Super Concert 27 Bruno Mars,” American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars’ Seoul concert will be held on June 17 and 18 at 8 p.m.(KST), at the Jamsil Olympic Main Stadium, southern Seoul.

The singer is returning to Korea after nine years, following his previous concert in 2014, and fan anticipation has resulted in an online queuing of more than 130,000 people trying to purchase a ticket last week.

With ticket prices ranging from $58 (77,000 won) to $188 (250,000 won), tickets with preferred seating locations have been easily sold by scalpers for double their original price. Currently, two ground-floor tickets were seen on a ticket resale website for 3,000,000 won, almost 6 times the original price, despite organizers strictly banning ticket sales on unauthorized sites.

Organizer Live Nation released an update on Thursday that it found and confirmed 60 unauthorized and illegal ticket sales online, which the organizer proceeded to cancel and nullify without any notice. Live Nation added they will continue to check for unauthorized ticket sales.

Born in 1985 in Hawaii, Bruno Mars debuted with the studio album “Doo-Wops & Hooligans” (2010) and rose to instant stardom with hit tracks from the compilation, including “Grenade,” “Just the Way You Are,” “Talking to the Moon” and “Runaway Baby.”

His other hits include “Uptown Funk!” (2014), “24K Magic” (2016), “When I Was Your Man” (2012) and “Young, Wild & Free” (2011).

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]