Sepultura's April 28 show in Beirut, Lebanon was recently cancelled due to local authorities believing the band to be "devil worshippers" who are "insulting Christianity". The same authorities also claimed they have video clips of Sepultura showing their support of Israel, which metal media deduced might be a reference to their 1993 music video "Territory". The video was filmed in both Israel and Palestine, but did not voice support for either country.
Sepultura has now addressed the cancellation, as well as set up a live stream of their May 2 show in Dubai for all the fans who didn't get to see them in Beirut.
“On behalf of Sepultura and staff, we would like to express to our public in Beirut our deep dissatisfaction with the situation to which we were submitted by the general security office which resulted in the cancellation of our show that would take place yesterday (Sunday, April 28th) at The Palace.
In 35 years of history, it was the first time we had our entry blocked in a country by a false interpretation of our purposes and values since our intention has always been to promote unity and freedom of expression through music, without making any political, racial or religious distinction.
To try to compensate everyone who, like us, are frustrated with what happened, we would like to invite you to watch the live broadcast of our upcoming Dubai concert on May 2 in honor of all Sepultura Lebanese fans who could not watch us in person.
LIVE STREAMING INFORMATION
LINK: http://youtube.com/sepultura
DAY: May 2, 2019
TIME: Lebanon – 22:00, Europe – 21:00, Brasil – 16:00, USA 3:00pm (ET)
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We’d like to thank Skull Session, Sepulnation around the world, all media that has published anything related to this subject, and Embassy of Brazil in Beirut for all the support.
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Andreas, Paulo, Derrick, Eloy and the Sepultura team”
At least Sepultura is making the best of a ridiculous situation.
