Hannah Montana mania hits Chicago area

The teen star's sold-out concert rocked the Allstate Arena in Rosemont Saturday.

Those that had to go online or through a broker to get tickets for the one show in Chicago paid more than playoff seats for the Bulls and Bears have cost in recent years.

Disney's dream girl was delighting young fans Saturday evening who probably had to do a lot of begging and pleading and promising to be good just for the chance to be at the concert. For those nearly 18,000 'tweens', Christmas came early.

"Oh, my gosh. I'm actually here. I was pretty amazed," said one fan outside the Allstate Arena.

"She does sing good songs," added another.

Hannah Montana, also known as Miley Cyrus, gave a special pre-performance talk to employees of an office supply chain Saturday. Many young fans there had their hands, signaling that they would do just about anything for the free tickets that were being raffled off.

Some parents were stunned that tickets on the Internet were going for as much as $4,500 each.

"For the average family of four to get four tickets to go there, and I actually looked with brokers or online, on Ebay and things like that, and it was just outrageous," said parent Angie McCauley.

"If it was up to me, I would have everyone there, and the problem is there's not enough big place to seat everyone. So, hopefully, I get to see them at future shows that I'll get to do, and I would love to get to meet everyone if I could," said Miley Cyrus.

'Hannah Montana' is the super-secret identity a young rock star uses so she can live the life of a normal kid in the Disney television show. It has become the real-life story of sorts for Miley Cyrus, who plays Hannah. Miley is the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus.

A couple of young boys outside the concert told ABC7 Chicago's Ben Bradley that did not know what all of the fuss was about, but Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who attended the concert and has two daughters, disagreed.

" [In] Hannah Montana, you get, and let me quote one of her songs, the 'best of both worlds.' She's a wholesome young girl who sings well and has a great show on the Disney channel," the governor said.

When asked if Hannah Montana is better than Elvis, the Governor Blagojevich responded:

"Well, I'm a little partial to Elvis. If you were to ask my two daughters whether they prefer Hannah Montana or Elvis, you would get another answer."

The governor is one of those people who is late to absolutely everything, but he was five minutes early to the Hannah Montana concert. Perhaps, that indicates where his priorities are or just how big of a deal the show was to his daughters.

Disney is the parent company of ABC7 Chicago.

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