Another Serving of Black Eyed Peas?

No, no, no, no … don’t phunk with my heart! What’s up with the Black Eyed Peas – are they coming to China or not? In the past week, news about a potential Black Eyed Peas performance in Beijing has been flying this way and that, with official websites changing their tune on a daily basis.

First came the general notices of fall plans, followed by uninformed rumors on the tbjforum (which have at least a grain of truth, right?), and finally, a quick visit to the Official Black Eyed Peas Site revealed that the pop-hop outfit indeed did have plans to return to China as part of their Pepsi-sponsored Black Blue and You world tour (not to be mistaken as part of their previous Honda Civic Tour, oh no), arriving in China this October (that’s next month!) for a show at Shanghai’s Hong Kao Stadium … and Beijing’s National Olympic Stadium!?

Um, the Bird’s Nest? I don’t think so. Unfortunately, it’s not operational until April of next year – and the smart money’s betting that the Olympic committee won’t give the venue’s prized opening slot to a bunch of Elephunky hooligans, no matter how many times they plan to change their outfits.

No sooner than we had uncovered this little inaccuracy (still, however, listed on wikipedia, which means it must be true, right?), the group’s website was updated, placing the group in Beijing at the Fengtai Stadium on Oct 24. Ah, finally, a place that’s open and in existence! Phone calls to the venue revealed that there was indeed an “as yet to be confirmed foreign event” set to take place there on that date, though the hapless operators were wary of revealing any additional information. Meanwhile, at the answers.com tour page, all the dates were changed to “tba” – with China taken off the list of the countries planned for on the tour (making for a total of 12 countries, though it’s still listed as 13 …).

At the same time, representatives from Emma Entertainment were quick to dissociate themselves from the event, saying “we are not currently involved in any BEP dates in China. We were trying to be helpful but there's a lot of people involved.” Hmm, sounds like another potential gig doomed by unprofessional promoter shenanigans. One thing’s for sure: they definitely didn’t make the deadline for our October magazine listings!

(Those hankering for a taste of will.i.am can probably hear some of the (admittedly bumping) tracks he produced for Talib Kweli’s latest album Eardrum, when Kweli takes the stage for the Yue Festival at the beginning of October.)

Links and Sources:
Black Eyed Peas Official Site
tbjforum: Review of Black Eyed Pea's performance in Beijing in 2006
that's Beijing: Music Review: Talib Kweli
tbjblog: Flavor of Love ...
Answers.com: Black Blue and You Tour
Yue Festival Official Site