(Lilly) Allen forced to postpone US tour (US revokes Visa)

[The Sushi Bandit]

Source: BBC

Pop star Lily Allen has postponed her US tour and cancelled an appearance at the MTV Music Awards after her US work visa was revoked earlier this month. Her tour was due to begin in San Diego on 6 September but a record company spokesman said reinstating the visa was "taking longer than anticipated".

The visa was cancelled after Allen flew into Los Angeles and was questioned over an assault in London.


Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6951912.stm

---

US Agents will find any excuse to keep celebraties who dont like GWB from entering the country.

[bananas]

1. What's going on?

Why are they are giving her such a hard time?

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Seems to have been an incident with the paparazzi

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6252032.stm

Personally, I don't think the US is missing out on anything. Her music sounds like the parodies the "Smack the Pony" sketch programme did a few years before. She's most famous for working out the publicity on MySpace could sell loads of records.

[Myrina]

11. Yeah her "talent" totally eludes me ...

:wtf: ... she sounds like a 60's lounge lizard ...

[T_i_B]

36. Could be worse...

Could be Amy Winehouse!

[heliarc]

46. Boo hoo

Cultural elitists on Democratic Underground are really pretty boring. Her music happens to be fun and her lyrics quite a deal more honest than average. Sometimes I wish we liberals could have a little more fun than we do. Maybe then we'd capture the imagination of the greater majority.

[Barrett808]

47. Yes, I find her appealing and her lyrics sometimes clever

She could cut back on the tremolo a bit and get some voice training, but as pop music goes, she's quite listenable.

[The Sushi Bandit]

30. She is the brightest new star to record in the last few years

Her CD IS GREAT!!

[treestar]

41. The slightest criminal record

Is used to exclude people. The rule of reason is gone.

The Beatles could never have been admitted nowadays!

[daleo]

45. You're right, it is out of control

I know someone who was denied entry due to a minor pot charge (<$100 fine) from 1976 (31 years ago).

I don't know if it is just paranoia, or if there is some political design behind all this, but it does smack of an incipient police state mentality. We in the West used to mock the USSR for this type of thing.

[mitchum]

3. Good (does the US really need to import more banality and bullshit?)

[Hissyspit]

6. You're right. We're perflectly able to produce our own banality and bullshit.

In the mean time, we can also suppress freedom of travel and commerce and art for citizens of the world, especially those who have criticized the lunatic American administration.

Way to go to miss the whole point. They won't let her into the country because she called George W. Bush an "arsehole."

http://www.spreadit.org/2007/04/06/lily-allen-calls-george-w-bush-an-ahole-and-claims-she-is-probably-bisexual

[mitchum]

7. I didn't miss the point...

she is not being denied entry due to her criticism of the fascist in the WH. But that "reason" does add credibility to a lightweight, doesn't it? Pity that you fell for the hype.
Hell, she COULD call for his overthrow, and I would still consider her talentless.

[Snazzy]

9. good plan, DHS can decide who sucks for us

Save us a lot of bother. Let's put those DHS/TSA/INS/pick-an-acronym goons to work!

[mitchum]

12. I don't need the DHS; my ears work just fine...

there have been a multitude of Limey popstars who are rightly critical of bushco who have been allowed to enter the US in the past several years.

[The Sushi Bandit]

31. Sounds like you never really listened to her cd!

She deals with a lot of issues facing family and friends. And her voice is SWEET!

[saigon68]

27. Yes he is one of those "A---Hole" and a Chimp too

[lisby]

20. self-delete

[lisby]

21. Why not? We sure do our best to export it. NT

:shrug:

[mitchum]

22. That's my point; the US can manufacture enough of its own pablum...

so, there's no need to import it

[treestar]

43. And imagine how infuriated we'd be if some country refused

to allow an American performer into theirs, even with a minor criminal record.

[treestar]

42. That's not the point

If someone likes her, they have as much right to see her as whatever you like, which those other Americans don't.

[Stella_Artois]

54. Thanks to Allah you are not in charge

Denying entry into countries based on nothing but your taste is a pretty arrogant thing to do.

Just perhaps people think your taste in music is total shite. I'll have you denied access to my country too.

[madrchsod]

4. i like this report

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=475944&in_page_id=1773



Bag lady: Friends carry camera-shy Lily Allen in giant bag to avoid paparazzi

[rocktivity]

35. DING DING DING! Madrchsod, you're our grand prize winner!

Friends carry camera-shy Lily Allen in giant bag to avoid paparazzi.

Well, if she's THAT camera shy, paranoid, or just plain nuts, It's probably for the best that she was sent home. Besides, the U.S. has enough spoiled brat lawbreaking pop tarts of its own.

:headbang:
rocknation

[BeyondThePale]

5. I guess Keith Moon would never be allowed in the country now...

[treestar]

44. Absolutely true

The Clash would never have made it either.

[tom_paine]

8. Neither Hitler nor Bush could allow traitors in their nation

n/t

[Mike Daniels]

10. Oh please, the Kinks were unable to tour countries because of behavorial problems as well

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

13. Yeah...

But that was the Davies Brothers mostly beating each other up. ;-)

[onehandle]

14. She has an unstable history, made public threats, and has dealt drugs.

On top of the assault event.

DUers sure like to see conspiracy where there is none.

[mitchum]

15. Many DUers will probably now go out and buy her wretched product...

because "she's on our side!"

[alfredo]

17. My wife's faint praise of Lily Allen

"She makes the best of what she has." Of course you would have heard her inflection and watched her body language to really get the meaning of the faint praise.

Lily Allen has personality and youthful good looks, but that doesn't make up for her shortcomings as a singer. Style over substance.

My wife is a singer/songwriter. She has style and substance. there was always a sense of danger when she took the stage. She always seemed on the brink of self destruction, but never did go over the edge. Early Ricky Lee Jones and Sinead O'Conner have that quality in spades.

Allen and others are safe, scripted, and lacquered to the point of being boring.

[mitchum]

18. Our wives may be twin daughters of different mothers...

:)
Mine is also a singer with real range and control who is also dismissive of all of today's daughters of Claudine Freakin' Longet
Now, Mrs mitchum actually did go over the edge...more than once

[alfredo]

23. Sometimes one has to go over the edge from time to time.

I believe there are real artist out there, but the record companies are so conservative they are unwilling to take a chance on talent. Same goes for the radio monopolies.

[poverlay]

28. Wow, you really despise Lily don't you? She's no Dalida, but I think her stuff is decent.

I certainly don't think she, or anyone, should be banned from the U.S. for lack of talent. If that were to happen I would have to leave myself!

[mitchum]

29. No, I don't despise her; I just despise the machine of which she's just another product

[mvd]

24. It's not wretched, though I wouldn't buy it

I like pop music and will always defend the artists I like. But Lily Allen's vocals sound like a pout, and the music is an uncomfortable mix of Nellie McKay and No Doubt's ska sound (though I enjoy those two artists.)

As for conspiracy here, there might not be one. But I can see why people find them - if anyone would do a conspiracy, it's Bush and his neocon masters.

[NashVegas]

39. No, I Buy Her Not So Wretched Product Because The Specials Play in Her Band

Now and again.

[Barrett808]

48. My, my, what's with all the hatin' on Lily Allen?

I find "LDN" to be a subtlety subsversive little tune: Anybody who's willing to say that things are not as they seem gets a nod from me.

But she could use some vocal training.

[muriel_volestrangler]

50. Well, there you go, you say yourself her voice isn't very good

It's not that surprising that DU doesn't give the benefit of the doubt to someone who got where they did because of a famous father (who himself is a talented actor, but a crap singer, who only got records released because of his fashionable friends). If her talent is limited, she'll get honest criticism.

[Barrett808]

52. Well, for sure she's no Regina Spektor, but if every entertainer had to have a golden voice...

...we wouldn't have had acts like Nirvana...or Brian Eno...

[tammywammy]

16. DUers sure like to see conspiracy where there is none."

But that's the fun of DU! :)

[3waygeek]

26. That's why they didn't let her in...

the Bushes hate competition.

[The Sushi Bandit]

32. WHAT??

she is 21 for christ sake!
How much "History" can you have at that age!

[Solly Mack]

19. I had to "google" her - no fucking clue who she is

and I'm mighty glad I did...have to google her, that is

:D

[rocktivity]

25. Checked out the songs on her official web site

I LIKE the idea of her not being able to enter other countries. If she were black, she wouldn't have gotten within ten miles of a record deal.

x(
rocknation

[The Sushi Bandit]

33. I can not belive how many of you are so JADED

and so out of touch with the music scene!!

[sanskritwarrior]

49. Or maybe your music taste sucks

Mahalo for reading.........

[TheWatcher]

51. Maybe you just suck....

Period.

[sanskritwarrior]

53. What's with the hostility?

all because of a musician with a criminal record?

[AtomicKitten]

34. Homeland Security protecting Americans from the lovely Lily Allen.

Well, I practically feel safer.

[Jennicut]

37. She looks a lot more real than our pop stars here

She has a more real looking body and her music is allright. Not the greatest but okay. She got in a fight with some Spice Girl wannabe (how sad is it to be THAT) about her looks. The other girl said she was fat and ugly or something like that and Lily wrote about it on her My Space page. The being carried in a bag to avoid publicity seems like a joke. I doubt she was being serious. She does not seem like a threat to our country. I cna think of much much worse.

[The Sushi Bandit]

40. I like this pix of her

[IsItJustMe]

38. Yep. They did it to Cat Stevens. Just wonder how free we are anymore.