It looks like R. Kelly is effectively being muted, or at least he will be this weekend. Ticketmaster posted a note on their website saying the singer “is no longer performing” at the University of Illinois in Chicago Pavilion’s Pre-Mother’s Day Love Jam concert, in light of the recent joined forces between the #MuteRKelly campaign and the Women of Color branch of the Time’s Up movement.
“First of all, I want to apologize to all of my fans in Chicago, and basically all around the world wherever I’m performing at and they canceled me,” Kelly confirmed in a video on his Twitter. “I don’t know why they canceled the show. I never heard of a show being canceled because of rumors, but I guess there’s a first time for everything. So I apologize to you guys and in the meantime, I’m going to try to get to the bottom line of it, you know, as far as my lawyers are concerned, and see exactly what happened and why I was canceled.”
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Protestors have spoken against Kelly for numerous sexual assault accusations, the most prominent of which perhaps being last summer’s reports that he ran a sex “cult” in Chicago and Atlanta.
Over 1,300 UIC students signed a petition calling for the cancellation of Kelly’s concert, originally scheduled for May 5. The petition cited “overwhelming public evidence of [Kelly’s] history of sexual misconduct” as grounds for cancellation.
Kelly’s management has denied sexual assault claims. In a statement obtained by Variety, his management said in part “Kelly supports the pro-women goals of the Time’s Up movement. We understand criticizing a famous artist is a good way to draw attention to those goals—and in this case, it is unjust and off-target.”
Watch Kelly’s video following his UIC performance cancellation below.
Straight from the –’s mouth! I love my fans. I love Chicago. Next show: Greensboro, NC May 11. pic.twitter.com/RcbalV0Idc
— R. Kelly (@rkelly) April 30, 2018