The Grammy winner has canceled what was due to be her first concert in Malaysia next month, in the wake of protests over her booty-baring stage antics and increased pressure to conform to the country's hard-line Muslim regime's ultrastrict dress codes for female performers.
Knowles' International Creative Management agents, however, said the scuttled show was "due to a scheduling conflict" and nothing more.
"It is with regret that we announce the cancellation of the Beyoncé Experience. It was to mark the very first time the performer would bring her show to Malaysia."
The statement confirmed Friday's announcement by Kuala Lumpur-based concert promoter Pineapple Concerts that the plug had been pulled; Pineapple, however, declined to give a reason.
The news follows an uptick in protests by several conservative groups, including the nearly 10,000-strong National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students, urging the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage to stop the concert from taking place.
The complaints are nothing new. Gwen Stefani, who performed in Malaysia on Aug. 21, faced the same public objections in the run-up to her own show, with groups claiming a performance by the pop star would corrupt the nation's youth. Stefani agreed, begrudgingly, to abide by the country's compulsory dress code, initiated in 2005, forbidding female performers from showing any skin whatsoever from the tops of their chests to their knees.
In a press conference promoting the show, Stefani said she had made a "major sacrifice" in honoring the restrictions but went through with it for her fans.
As for Knowles, she has set her sights on a different set of admirers.
While Kuala Lumpur is a tour no-go, the singer has scheduled a gig to take place in nearby Jakarta on Nov. 1. While Indonesia is also a Muslim state, it has not set any guidelines in place for visiting performers, and Beyoncé will be able to don any of Mama Knowles' cleavage-baring outfits she pleases and will also be able to jump, shout, curse and embrace audience members onstage—things she would not be allowed to do in Malaysia.
Would-be concertgoers in Kuala Lumpur won't have to suffer the indignity of waiting for a refund: Tickets for the concert had not yet gone on sale. Pineapple Concerts had not applied for a license to hold the concert, wisely waiting, per Billboard, to see whether Beyoncé would agree to comply with the terms of the dress code.
Other than Stefani, acts that did recently make the highly restricted trip to the Malaysian stage include Kanye West, Earth, Wind & Fire and the Pussycat Dolls, whose promoters were fined nearly $3,000 after the girl group wore too-skimpy outfits onstage and danced in a "sexually suggestive" way.
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