BUJU BANTON
LONDON, (Reuters):
A CONCERT by Jamaican reggae artiste, Buju Banton, has been cancelled following protests by the local gay community that his lyrics are homophobic, the British venue said.
Banton was due to perform later on Wednesday at the Concorde 2 venue in the southern English seaside resort of Brighton, considered to be Britain's 'gay capital'.
"Due to unprecedented pressure from the council, members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community and the police, Concorde 2 have been left with no choice other than to cancel the Buju Banton event," the club said on its website.
It added that it was concerned about losing its licence were the gig to go ahead, although it defended the original decision to stage it.
NOTORIOUS SONG
Concorde 2 sought to assure authorities that Banton would not perform his most notorious song Boom Bye Bye, written in 1992, which describes a gay man being shot in the head.
"Buju has metamorphosed from a rude boy/teenage phenomenon, causing controversy with the track Boom Bye Bye (which he no longer performs in the U.K.) into a self-assured Rastafarian deejay and singer," Concorde 2 said.
Welcoming the decision to cancel the gig, local authorities argued that the question of whether Banton performed the offending track or not was irrelevant.
