A part of me suspects that it’s also a lot more troublesome to apply to perform in Malaysia. The last time I checked, the organising company in Singapore just needs to have the right entertainment license and they can easily apply for a work permit for artists. Whereas Malaysia has this 39 page beauty.
And if you’re holding your concert in Sabah/Sarawak you have to submit your application twice to PUSPAL and the state government. Yeah, it’s not looking good for us.
also everytime they come in they get cancelled by local nutjobs. why would anyone want to voluntarily come in to be cancelled?
They will very literally get cancelled by local government before any nutjob in the public gets to them.
If you skim the guidelines in the document I linked, one of the things artistes must do is submit a copy of all of their lyrics to be checked for inappropriate content. Then there’s the clothing guidelines for male and female artistes, behavior guidelines, topic restrictions in banter etc.
After you pass all that, your ticket prices have to be adjusted to the local currency and buying power of the local market. 30% of your crew has to be local (understandable stipulation, but for Singapore you only need minimum 1 local to be hired and paid full salary to scale).
End of the day, we might have the facilities and expertise needed to mount a show, but the hassle is too much for too little return.
