Live Nation Cancels Concerts with Artist Who Sings About Killing LGBT People

by Michael Jones · 2009-08-27 18:26:00 UTC
Topics:

Buju Banton

Historic news!  After receiving more than 650 emails from change.org members, as well as criticism from groups like the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, Live Nation has decided to cancel four concerts by musical artist Buju Banton.  Banton has a track record of performing music with lines that reference killing LGBT people, including one song that mentions throwing acid on LGBT people and burning them like old tires.

In a statement emailed out to everyone who petitioned the company, Live Nation said in simple terms:

LIVE NATION CANCELS BUJU BANTON CONCERTS

LOS ANGELES, CA - August 27, 2009       Live Nation announced today it
has cancelled all previously scheduled concerts by Buju Banton.  These
include:

10/01/09       House of Blues Chicago
10/15/09       House of Blues Las Vegas
10/20/09       House of Blues Dallas
10/22/09       House of Blues Houston

Refunds are available at the point of purchase.

Congratulations to everyone who emailed to help make this happen! Together we sent the message that artists who sing about committing acts of violence toward LGBT people are not the type of acts that national music promoters like Live Nation should be hawking.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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