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Malaysia bans Ke$ha
By Aly Barchi | Published on Tuesday 29 October 2013
Ke$ha is the latest artist to cancel a concert in Malaysia after the authorities there said her show would “hurt cultural and religious sensitivies”. She had been due to play a show in the nation’s capital Kuala Lumpur.
Despite consenting to tone down her ‘suggestive’ lyrics and costumes in line with the Muslim country’s strict rules on such things, Ke$ha was forbidden from appearing, she says, under threat of “imprisonment”, a claim that’s since been denied by the concert’s promoters, Livescape.
Tweeting on Saturday, when the show was meant to take place, Ke$ha said: “To be clear. I did NOT cancel. I was not allowed to play. And then I was going to play anyways and was threatened with imprisonment”.
In response, Livescape’s head of PR, Jason Kong, told Malaysian paper The Star: “We told her we would advise against it because the authority will shut down the show. I don’t know where the imprisonment came from. I don’t think anyone from the government was in touch with her. I think it was a tweet of frustration”.
Western artists often have to alter the content of their live shows when they perform in Malaysia so as not to anger more militant groups in the Muslim country, and Beyonce is among the stars to have previously cancelled shows there after running into problems with the authorities.
