YeinJee's Asian Journal

It’s official, Avril’s KL concert is on. The Malaysian authority has changed their mind with the earlier decision to bar the Canadian pop star from performing in Kuala Lumpur on August 29th.

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

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

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.

It’s almost deja vu for Malaysians… as the authority had barred Indonesian singer Inul Daratista from performing in late July 2008 following similar protest that her performance was too erotic. Luckily for Avril’s fans, Galaxy has managed to appeal for the concert to run as planned.

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 have 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 around USD3000 when they held their concert in Malaysia last time, Gwen Stefani was told to cover up, Linkin Park were told not to ‘shout’… and Beyonce was smart enough to cancel her concert before the authorities could shut her door.

If this trend keeps going, lots of the foreign artists might not consider having a concert in Malaysia and favour neighbouring Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia instead.