Hoermann Picks Up Madonna

Austrian promoter Richard Hoermann will handle Madonna’s autumn shows in Vienna and Budva, and the U.S. pop star’s European agent John Giddings says the reasons for him making that choice are "self-evident."

Giddings, who has traditionally worked with Wolfgang Klinger in Austria and The Balkans, wouldn’t make further comment on the switch to Hoermann, but it could not help that Klinger is under investigation for fraud over the collapse of Rock & More 1 and 2.

Klinger also upset Live Nation – Madonna’s new business partner – over a Barbra Streisand date he promoted in Vienna last summer, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The show at the 18,000-capacity Schoenbrunn Palace was delayed 24 hours because of torrential rain, but the suppliers weren’t paid for the second day and at least one complained to LN, which was the main tour promoter.

Giddings, who handled the European leg of the Streisand tour, has since returned to Live Nation – which he left at the beginning of 2006 – to look after the European legs of its global tours.

Madonna will play the 75,000-capacity Danube Island in Vienna September 23 and the 100,000-capacity Budva Jaz Beach in Montenegro September 25, where Klinger and Raka Maric from Belgrade-based Music Star promoted The Rolling Stones – another Giddings act – in 2007.

But the Budva local authority, which funded the Stones show, wasn’t happy with the amount it paid in extra costs or the way the accounts were presented.

In February, when the Budva Municipality became aware of the possibility of staging a Madonna show, it appointed Hoermann to act on its behalf.

He will promote the Vienna show through his own Austrian Entertainment GmbH and co-produce the Budva show with Maxa Catovic of Belgrade-based Komuna.