Ticketmaster halted the ticket onsale for Céline Dion‘s Paris concerts on Thursday (June 4), telling buyers it had detected “suspicious activity” in its queue.
The pause left fans who had spent hours waiting in Ticketmaster‘s online queue unable to complete their purchases.
The sale was the dedicated venue window for 10 dates that Dion added at Paris La Défense Arena in May 2027.
“Tickets are still available for Céline Dion. Our technical teams have identified suspicious activities and are actively working to prevent these actors from disrupting the sale,” Ticketmaster France said in a statement posted to X, translated from French.
“We are doing everything possible to restart the queue as quickly as possible. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused and sincerely thank all affected fans for their patience and understanding.”
Ticketmaster France did not say what the activity involved, or when the sale would resume.
“I have been 5000th in line stucked for at least 40 minutes and now they are saying tickets are almost sold out,” one fan wrote on X.
“Who is buying them if the queue in not going through? Ticketmaster explain yourself.”
Another fan asked the company to “unblock the queue for Madame Céline Dion‘s concerts at Paris La Défense Arena,” signing off on behalf of “all the people who have been waiting for 1 hour to get tickets.”
Dion announced the 10 extra dates on Monday (June 1), responding to demand from fans who had registered for her 2026 presale but missed out on tickets.
The dedicated artist sale opened on Wednesday (June 3), followed by the venue sale on Thursday (June 4), according to Dion’s website. The venue window was the one Ticketmaster paused.
The 2027 run extends a residency that Dion first announced in March, beginning with 10 shows at the 40,000-capacity arena between September 12 and October 14, 2026.
That schedule was later expanded to 16 shows, taking the full engagement to 26 concerts across 2026 and 2027.
The residency marks Dion‘s first run of concerts since she postponed and then canceled her Courage World Tour following her 2022 diagnosis with stiff-person syndrome.
She returned to the stage at the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony.
“This year, I’m getting the best birthday gift of my life … I’m getting the chance to see you, to perform for you once again,” Dion said in a video message announcing the Paris shows.
“I want to let you know that I’m doing great. I’m managing my health, I’m feeling good, I’m singing again, even doing a little bit of dancing, obviously,” Dion added.
The halted sale arrives as Ticketmaster and its parent, Live Nation, fight to overturn an April verdict in which a US jury found the companies illegally monopolized primary ticketing at major US concert venues.
The jury found that the companies had overcharged consumers by $1.72 per ticket, and a coalition of 33 US states and the District of Columbia is now seeking a court order to force a sale of Ticketmaster.
Ticketmaster has faced scrutiny over high-demand sales in Europe before.
Its 2024 on-sale for Oasis‘ UK and Ireland reunion shows was marred by technical problems that may have been linked to bots, with more than 900,000 tickets sold on the first day.
Ticketmaster later agreed with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority to make its ticket sales more transparent, without admitting wrongdoing.
The regulator found no evidence that Ticketmaster had used “dynamic pricing” in the Oasis sale.Music Business Worldwide
