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France: Jamaican reggae star’s concerts cancelled
Reggae singer Capleton's allegedly homophobic lyrics has prompted protests by the gay rights group Coordination InterPride France, calling to ban his concerts. So far, six French music venues have axed scheduled performances in response, reports BBC World.Jamaican reggae star Capleton (real name: Clifton George) is a controversial entertainer who has been banned from performing in Britain and certain parts of the United States because of his stance against homosexuality as well as his racist views. At a concert he held in Zen Nightclub in Trinidad on March 30, 2005, he spoke to his audience about being the man appointed by Salassie to cleanse the world of all evil people.
France has strict laws banning public hate speech and defamation. “If Capleton refuse to sign a document pledging not to use defamatory speech during his performance, his concert at Le Zenith, in Paris, on 26 June, will be cancelled as well,” says Zenith's director, Daniel Colling. Capleton’s lyrics
The lyrics of Capleton’s song ‘Give Har’ say: “All boogaman and sodemites fi get killed” - which means: “All queers and sodomites should be killed”. Batty Man, chi chi man and boogaman are derogatory Jamaican slang similar to faggot, poof and queer.
His hit song ‘Whoa’ has a line which goes: “Sadomite and batty man mi shot up... Whoa”, and his song “Bun Out Di Chi Chi” exhorts his audience to “Burn out a queer, Blood out a queer”.
“Blood out” is Jamaican slang for “kill”.
Source:
BBC News, June 2005: ‘France cancels reggae star shows’
BBC News, February 2005: ‘Deal to ban 'homophobic' reggae’
Other articles on the current debate on homophobic lyrics:
Google News search on 'homophobic' + 'reggae'
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