Music

Notorious Scumbag R. Kelly Announces An Australian Tour; Australia Says ‘No Thanks’

Yeah, we're not interested.

by Joseph Earp  6 February 2019

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

Who’s out there asking for an R. Kelly tour in the year of our Lord 2018? No one in Australia or New Zealand, apparently.

The alleged abuser and subject of an explosive new documentary, Surviving R. Kelly, recently announced on Twitter tentative plans for an antipodean tour, one that would involve stops in Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the string of allegations against the ‘Ignition’ singer that date all the way back to the ’90s, Australia’s response to the news was a big old ‘nup’.

As some have pointed out, it might not even be the online backlash that kills off the chances of Kelly’s tour going ahead.

Australia’s long history of denying rappers visas has been well-documented at this point, and it seems reasonably likely that immigration will ban Kelly from entering the country.

It’s not the first time over the last few months that Kelly has threatened to head our way. Last December, news of a tour by the singer went viral on Twitter, before one of the venues listed on the tour poster denied even agreeing to host a show.

Kelly’s alleged history of abusing women and minors began in the early ’90s. That’s when, according to multiple sources, the then 27-year-old R’n’B artist married his ‘protege’ Aaliyah, who was 15 at the time.

Since then, Kelly has been embroiled in numerous controversies. In 2002, a video was released that purportedly showed him abusing a minor, and that year, he was indicted on 21 counts of child pornography, though a jury later deemed him not guilty.

Then, in 2017, it was alleged that the artist was holding a number of women hostage as part of a ‘sex cult’. The parents of the women claimed that he was restricting their contact with the outside world.

So yeah, one way or the other, it looks unlikely that the musician will ever make it down our way. Thankfully.