The Arts, Culture and Heritage Ministry agree to Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party that her 'sexy' act will not coordinate with the image they want to create for upcoming independence day.
- Aug 20, 2008
AceShowbiz - Avril Lavigne will not perform in Malaysia on August 29 as scheduled due to the opposition sent by an Islamic movement that deemed her act as too "sexy" for the event leading up to the country's independence day on August 31. The canceled gig, however, will be rescheduled by the organizer Galaxy Group, to a new date which will still need approval from The Arts, Culture and Heritage Ministry.
Based on the meeting conducted on Tuesday, August 19, the ministry decide to give an all-clear to the appeal sent by Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party that fears youths in Malaysia will be influenced by Avril's performance. Speaking on the reason of the cancellation, Shukran Ibrahim who is a senior official from the department said, "It is not timely. It's not in the good spirit of our National Day. If we go ahead with the concert, it is contrary to what we are preparing for."
Galaxy Group, that have not yet given their statement regarding the ban as in press time, promoted the concert even before given permission from the government which is compulsory for foreign acts. It was reported that half of the concert seats have been sold.
Earlier this week, Kamarulzaman Mohamed from Pan-Malaysian told the Associated Press that Avril's sexy image is "not good for viewers in Malaysia." The youth party official said, "We don't want our people, our teenagers, influenced by their performance. We want clean artists, artists that are good role models."
Foreign acts have to abide to the dress code and stage rules set by the Malaysian government if they want to perform in the country which is largely dominated by Islam faith. They require that the stage costumes should cover from chest to knees and that they should not include any drug-related image. Shouting, kissing, hugging and jumping are also banned from the stage.
Last year, Beyonce Knowles preferred to move the concert to neighboring country Indonesia when the rules were applied to her. Gwen Stefani, however, raised the challenge by abiding to the rules and wear 'descent' clothes.
