YeinJee's Asian Blog

It’s official, the concert is on. The Malaysian authority have changed their mind with the earlier decision to bar Canadian pop star Avril Lavigne to perform on August 29 in Kuala Lumpur.

Avril told MTV on Thursday that the concert will go ahead as planned; and there were other sources indicating that Galaxy Group, the concert promoter, has successfully appeal to the initial ban. It has been officially confirmed on Friday evening that the show will go on.

Canadian singer Avril Lavigne

Earlier this week, Malaysian authority had made the call to bar Avril from performing at the scheduled KL concert, stating that the concert is unsuitable for Malaysian culture, particularly not when the country is celebrating independence day on August 31.

The decision echoed the call from an Islamic opposition party for the show to be scrapped, that the show is considered too sexy for Malaysians and would promote the wrong values as Malaysia’s independence day is looming near.

The spokesman for the Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry Ministry said that the concert promoter can request a new date for the concert… but it is becoming apparent that Galaxy has managed to appeal to hold the concert as scheduled instead.

It’s deja vu for Malaysians… the authority had barred Indonesian singer Inul Daratista from performing in late July 2008 following similar protest that her performance was ‘too erotic’.

Do mind that Malaysians in general are not that conservative; in fact lots of the Muslims are quite liberal in these kind of matters. Unfortunately the men that make the initial decision were not quite as open minded… glad that the final decision makers are showing more sense.

Malaysian authorities had cancelled the concert-permit for Indonesian singer Inul Daratista following protests from some Islamic groups.

The concert was scheduled to be held last weekend in Kuala Lumpur before being cancelled at the very last minute. Some Islamic groups were protesting against the concert… the major reason was that the concert was ‘erotic’. Obviously they won.

Inul is controversial with her suggestive dance moves which she called it the ‘Goyang Inul’ or ‘Gerak Gerudi’ (literally ‘drilling moves’). I’ll leave it for your own interpretation of how ‘erotic’ she is with the below video…

Some trace-back… Pussycat Dolls were fined when they held their concert in Malaysia last time, Gwen Stefani was told to cover up and Linkin Park were told not to ‘shout’.

Beyonce was smart enough to cancel her concert before the authorities could shut her door. Lots of other artists probably won’t consider having a concert in Malaysia at all.