Chris Brown's in town

HE'S only 23 but has US R&B singer Chris Brown's purple patch in the music industry come and gone?

Brown is expected to land at OR Tambo International tonight.

As part of the Carpe Diem Tour, his first show in South Africa takes place in Johannesburg tomorrow.

On Monday, he moves to Durban and he has two shows in Cape Town on Wednesday and Thursday.

But Brown faces two big problems.

The tickets for his show are far from being sold out and the Billboard music charts (which track sales and radio airplay) indicates his popularity is waning.

Currently, the interest in the Don't Judge Me singer is mostly about his love triangle with amateur model Karrueche Tran and Diamonds singer Rihanna.

The movements of the three have been circulating on Twitter and Instagram.

Tran and Brown were allegedly together in Dubai, where the latter had a show on Tuesday night.

Annoyed at the "betrayal", Rihanna apparently vented on Twitter.

Her first posting read: "Goodbye muthaf****r", and "You give, you get, then you give it the f**k back".

Brown released a video admitting he was in love with both women. It is said he has since decided to focus on his career rather than hurt either of them.

Tran had also vented on Twitter, saying: "There's a difference between a man and a boy. I prefer men."

Last month, there were reports that Rihanna, the Barbadian beauty, had said she wanted to start a family with Brown - his 2009 assault on her seemingly long forgotten and forgiven.

Brown's biggest hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Kiss Kiss and Run It, (both reached No1), were released in 2007 and 2005 respectively.

Since then his form on that chart has been patchy.

His off-stage problems might not be the reason for the lacklustre sale of tickets. It might be their price.

Brown's fans will pay as much as R890 for the Johannesburg and Cape Town concerts.

The highest ticket price his Durban followers will fork out is R850.

And Brown is not as big as Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Rihanna or Justin Bieber.

The most expensive ticket for Gaga's recent South African leg of her Born This Way Ball Tour was only R715. Bieber's Believe Tour tickets for May next year can set one back a maximum of R750.

But it is not all doom and gloom for Brown, is it?

His latest album, Fortune, is nominated for a Best Urban Contemporary Album at February's 55th Grammy Awards. His F.A.M.E album won the Grammy for Best RnB Album this year.