According to a new report, it's the higher ups at Disney and ABC that are against the 'Under the Influence' hitmaker's planned tribute to King of Pop at the award-giving event.
- Nov 21, 2022
AceShowbiz - New details regarding Chris Brown's cancelled performance at the 2022 American Music Awards emerged online. According to a new report, it was the higher ups at Disney and ABC that were against the "Under the Influence" hitmaker's planned tribute to Michael Jackson at the Sunday, November 20 award-giving event.
It was said that the award show's producers had been working on the tribute for weeks. The producers had been wanting the R&B singer to perform on the show to offer him an opportunity to showcase his talents after the singer claimed that he was "shadow-banned" from Hollywood since the #MeToo movement.
Later, Puck's founder Matthew Belloni contacted the higher ups at Disney and ABC about the "optics" of the performance as soon as he learned about the Michael Jackson tribute that Chris was preparing. Matthew said that the higher-ups, who were not aware of the tribute beforehand, didn't like the "prospect of a convicted domestic abuser feting an alleged child molester" on a Disney network.
The executives quickly told the producers to scrap the tribute as a whole, prompting a conflict with the producers. The producers knew that the decision would give them a huge backlash. Following a negotiation, it was then decided that Chris could still perform at this year's AMAs but without the Michael Jackson tribute which the executives deemed "too radioactive." Chris, however, wasn't happy with the decision as he would rather not perform at all than have the tribute cut.
Upon catching wind of the report, some celebrities showed support for Breezy. "Maybe I'm wrong but last time I checked they didn't actually find him doing anything to them kids…," Summer Walker wrote in an Instagram comment underneath The Neighborhood Talks' post. Kiyacole fumed, "So why invite him to perform in the first place?!"
Tank also defended Chris as saying, "Everyone owes Chris Brown an apology! He didn't ask for this. He was sitting at home minding his business when THEY CALLED HIM!!"
Over the weekend, Chris took to his social media account to call out AMAs for scrapping his MJ tribute performance for "unknown" reasons. On Saturday, November 19, he shared footage of his rehearsal, in which he performed his hit "Under the Influence" as well as some of MJ's songs like "Beat It", "Billie Jean", "Wanna Be Starting Something" and "Thriller".
Breezy expressed his disappointment over the canceled gig in the caption as he wrote, "U SERIOUS?" He added in the comment section, "WOULD'VE been the AMA performance but they cancelled me for reasons unknown."
