Christina Aguilera no-show angers fans

About 18,000 fans had their wishes dashed on Thursday night when Christina Aguilera cancelled her two Auckland shows at the last minute with a flu virus.

Many who flew to Auckland for the concerts vented their spleen online yesterday.

Susie Farmer, 13, of Christchurch, waited all day on Thursday with her father for the first concert to begin.

"I had been saving up for many months including using my birthday money," she wrote. "The first that we knew that the concert was cancelled was when we were walking up toward Vector Arena."

Other fans were alerted by an e-mail two hours before the concert was due to start.

A second concert due for last night was also cancelled. Ticketing agency Ticketmaster began issuing refunds yesterday.

Consumers Institute chief executive Sue Chetwin said there was a remote possibility people would get damages for flights and accommodation. "But it's a very long shot. The promoter can argue they didn't know it would happen. If you buy these tickets, you just have to hope the artist will appear."

Jessica Abrigo of Christchurch flew her young sister and cousin to Auckland for the show, but now thought Aguilera was a "selfish little cow".

"She can make it up to everyone by saying sorry to New Zealand at the next Grammy Awards ... Otherwise she can get stuffed and no one should ever buy another one of her albums."

Promoter Brent Eccles said Aguilera had been expected to recover from the virus which forced her to cancel earlier Australian shows, but the star could not get out of bed.