BON JOVI - Upcoming Chinese Tour In Jeopardy Over Videos
September 8, 2015, 8 years ago
Later this month, American rock band Bon Jovi was due to play its first shows in mainland China, with concerts planned in Beijing, Shanghai, and Macau, reports WashingtonPost.com journalist Adam Taylor. The band's namesake singer, Jon Bon Jovi, celebrated the news by recording a famous Chinese love song in Mandarin, a move that endeared him greatly to fans.
However, just a week before the first concert, it appears that the shows will be canceled. The problem? The performance permits have been pulled. Bon Jovi appears to be the latest American act to run afoul with China's notoriously opaque Ministry of Culture, the body that approves or denies performances and releases by musicians and others.
One source who works in the Chinese music industry says that the permit problem appears to have stemmed from a 2009 music video that featured imagery from the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
The same source suggested that a video of a 2011 video that showed Bon Jovi performing in front of images of the Dalai Lama, along with other important figures, may also have caught the Ministry of Culture's attention.
Read the full story at WashingtonPost.com.
