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Concert canceled after gays' protest Saturday, September 12, 2009 3:25 AM By Kevin Joy THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH The Lifestyle Communities Pavilion has canceled an Oct. 3 show featuring reggae singer Buju Banton after protests by advocates for Columbus' gay community. Taking issue with some content in the singer's music, several groups -- including Equality Ohio and Stonewall Democrats of Ohio -- circulated an e-mail yesterday urging people to voice their disapproval and shut down the show. "The targeted audience for his message and the proximity to the OSU campus neighborhood creates a tangible threat to the safety and well-being …...

Live Nation has canceled the concerts of a controversial reggae artist who was scheduled to perform at the House of Blues. Buju Banton, known for singing violent anti-gay lyrics, was booked to perform at the House of Blues in Chicago Oct. 1. Live Nation announced late Thursday night that all scheduled concerts by Banton have been canceled, including in Chicago, Las Vegas, Dallas and Houston. Live Nation did not state a reason for the cancellation. Anyone who bought tickets can get refunds. Gay rights groups had been pressuring Live Nation to cancel Banton's concerts, calling his music "murder music." In...

A South African judge has sentenced three men to life in prison for killing reggae star Lucky Dube in 2007. The 43-year-old was shot as the three stole his car in a Johannesburg suburb in a case which shocked the nation... "The sentence won't heal me, but we are happy they were arrested and that the law took its course," his wife Zanele Dube said afterwards... The court had heard that the three men thought their victim was Nigerian and did not realise his identity until they read about it in the newspapers the following day. Our reporter says one...

The Rev. Grant Lynn Ford appeared on a recent Caribbean radio program hoping to improve relations between Jamaicans in South Florida and the gay and lesbian community. Instead, the pastor from Sunshine Cathedral, which recently started a gay and lesbian congregation in Jamaica, endured a hostile radio audience. Jamaican callers chastised him for promoting homosexuality in their country. One caller said Ford would get a bullet through his head if he set foot on the island.

MORRISTOWN, N.J. - Moshe Herson seemed perplexed. Never before had the 72-year-old Orthodox rabbi been asked to listen to reggae to see whether he could hear Talmudic overtones. Of course, until three months ago, no Hasidic Jew had ever been crowned Best New Entertainer at the International Reggae and World Music Awards. So one recent morning in his office, Herson, dean of the Rabbinical College of America, listened on a borrowed iPod to the 27-year-old Hasidic music sensation known as Matisyahu, whose mix of reggae, rap and rock has won gold status for two recent albums, "Live at Stubb's" and...

Desmond Dekker dies published: Friday | May 26, 2006 Kandré McDonald, Freelance Writer The three-man singing group, Desmond Dekker and the Aces, is seen before departing on a tour of the United Kingdom, New York, Germany and Ireland, at the Palisadoes Airport. From left are Winston Samuels, the leader, Desmond Dekker, and Easton Howard. - FILE DESMOND ADOLPHUS Dacres, more widely known around the globe as Desmond Dekker, is dead. The ska artiste, who was born on July 17, 1941, in Jamaica, died in the United Kingdom at 4:00 a.m. Thursday.According to his manager, Delroy Williams, Dekker, who is...

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) Country music icon Willie Nelson is trying something a little different. Nelson, 72, will release a long-awaited reggae album, "Countryman" in July. He shot video in Jamaica this month for a cover of Jimmy Cliff's reggae classic "The Harder They Come" and Johnny and June Carter Cash's country music classic "I'm a Worried Man." "Willie started the project 10 years ago when he first came to Jamaica, but it's only been completed now," Mike Cacia, who worked on the album videos, said Thursday. Nelson, 72, began production on "Countryman" in 1995. The project was shelved when the...

LONDON (Billboard) - Bob Marley's 60th birthday will be celebrated with a month-long program of events in Ethiopia in February 2005. The program, titled "Africa Unite," will be spearheaded by a globally televised concert on Feb. 6, featuring the Marley children and his former backing singers the I-Threes. Harry Belafonte (news), Quincy Jones (news) and top African acts including Angelique Kidjo (news), Baaba Maal and Youssou N'Dour will also perform. The concert will be held in Addis Ababa's Mascoll Square, on what would have been Marley's 60th birthday. The singer died of cancer on May 11, 1981. Negotiations are under...

Dancehall reggae artist Capleton's Sacramento performance at Harlow's was canceled Friday amid protests over the singer's allegedly anti-gay lyrics. His shows scheduled for San Francisco, Los Angeles, Humboldt and Chico were also canceled in the past week. "Harlow's position on hate violence against the gay and lesbian community is the same as it (toward) any and all victims of hate violence. It will not be tolerated," Harlow's general manager Daniel Torza said in a written statement he sent to The Bee and addressed to Lambda Community Center, a local gay and lesbian organization. Sacramento has actually canceled Capleton twice in...

Police have cancelled a concert by a reggae star whose lyrics are alleged to be homophobic. Jamaican dancehall singer Buju Banton was scheduled to perform in Manchester, England tomorrow. The decision to pull the concert follows protests by gay rights campaigners. A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police said: “Greater Manchester Police’s City Centre Safe team and police officers in the city centre have been liaising closely with Manchester City Council and licensed premises in the city centre, following concerns about a reggae artist scheduled to perform at premises in Manchester. “Intelligence gathered about previous appearances of the artist and the...

CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK When the reggae star Beenie Man came to the Hammerstein Ballroom on Friday, he received his usual welcome. There was a frenetic introduction. There was an exuberant crowd of thousands, waving whatever he told them to wave: hands, flags, cellphones. And out front there were about a dozen pickets, hoisting signs and chanting: "No more murder music! No more murder music!" Over the past month, Beenie Man has found himself at the center of a growing controversy over antigay lyrics in dancehall reggae, the rapid-fire genre descended from reggae. Beenie Man, one of the genre's best and most...

KINGSTON, Jamaica - A generation ago, reggae anthems by Bob Marley and Peter Tosh preached concepts of "one love," legal marijuana and social justice. But today's version of Jamaica's native music is more likely to advocate casual sex, opulent dress and sometimes, critics say, violence against gays. The issue of homophobia in dancehall reggae took center stage this past week after Grammy-winning artist Beenie Man was booted from a concert associated with Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards in Miami. MTV pulled the Jamaican from the roster after Florida gay rights groups threatened to protest because of past Beenie Man lyrics...

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- Dancehall star Beenie Man, who has recorded anti-gay songs in the past, was yanked from a concert associated with the MTV Video Music Awards this weekend after gay groups planned a protest, the network said Wednesday. MTV pulled the Jamaican singer from the roster Tuesday after South Florida gay activists announced plans to protest Saturday's concert in Miami over some of his past lyrics, including "I'm dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all the gays" and "Queers must be killed." "We don't want anything to overshadow what will be a great weekend of music...

LONDON (Reuters) - A Jamaican reggae star has canceled concerts in Britain where police are investigating complaints his lyrics incited violence against gays. Gay rights group OutRage! said Sunday that Bounty Killer, born Rodney Price, canceled his concerts because of the investigation. But a spokesman for the London venue where he was due to perform Saturday said he canceled the gigs because he had missed his flight from Jamaica. Bounty Killer rose to stardom in 1996 with the album "My Xperience" and has since gained huge popularity in the United States, collaborating with some of the country's top rappers. OutRage!...

Gay rights activists seek arrest of reggae stars at Mobo awards Fiachra Gibbons, arts correspondent Friday September 19, 2003 The Guardian Under fire: Beenie Man Three reggae stars nominated for a Mobo award may be arrested at the prize ceremony next week because the lyrics of their songs allegedly incite the murder of gays and lesbians. Gay rights activists have presented Scotland Yard's hate crime unit with a dossier of evidence against Beenie Man, Bounty Killer and Elephant Man, three of the biggest stars of the Jamaican dance hall scene, which is notorious for its homophobia. Activists say they have...