Did Maroon 5 Get Shanghai’d By Chinese Government?
Is there big trouble in little China for the Adam Levine-led super group, Maroon 5? Fans of the band certainly think so. And it could all be related to the band’s support of the Dalai Lama.
Click 2 Houston is reporting that Maroon 5’s public support of the Dalai Lama by guitarist Jesse Carmichael has led to their upcoming Shanghai concert being abruptly pulled Thursday morning by tour organizer Live Nation.
“Jesse Carmichael, one of the band members, attended a star-studded event on July 4 near Los Angeles to celebrate the 80th birthday of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader. In a Twitter post from that evening, the musician sounded excited: “Happy Birthday America (and The Dalai Lama too) sang happy birthday to his holiness today with a…” followed by a link to Instagram, the photo-sharing site. Both the tweet and the photo have been deleted.”
This support could be the “reason” Live Nation alluded to in a statement released regarding the Maroon 5 cancellation. CNN also cited previous examples of rock bands being barred from China due to political affiliations.
“Linkin Park, another popular American rock band, was barred from China in 2011 after they were photographed embracing and shaking hands with the Dalai Lama at a youth conference in Los Angeles.”
The Shanghai setback is just the latest bump in the road on the Adam Levine-led Maroon 5 tour. As reported by Inquisitr, the band had to cancel several shows for a myriad of reasons on their overseas leg thus far.
In June, Maroon 5 was forced to cancel their September show in Jakarta because the date interfered with an annual religious festival taking place at the same time.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have to cancel our show in Jakarta on the 23rd of Sept. For more info head here http://t.co/uO6F5wdO0N
— Maroon 5 (@maroon5) June 23, 2015
Maroon 5 also had to squash a show in Liverpool, England, in late May due to injuries to Adam Levine’s vocal cords, suffered during the previous night’s concert.
Due to Adam’s throat problem, our show tonight in Liverpool at Echo Arena is cancelled. Please visit point of purchase for refunds!
— Maroon 5 (@maroon5) May 29, 2015
And while Adam was able to recover to tackle the rest of their European gig, the band also had to deal with several ticket scalping issues overseas that limited fans’ availability to see their favorite band perform.
No word yet on whether or not the Maroon 5 Shanghai dates will be rescheduled or replaced by another concert venue.
[Maroon 5 photo credit: Kevin Kane / Getty Images]
