Sizzla’s US Visa Reinstated, First Show Set For Boston
Reggae and Dancehall star Sizzla says his US Visa was recently reinstated, paving the way for him to headline Boston’s “Dancehall Reggae Fest Series” on August 10.
“The artist has not performed in the country for a number of years due to Visa restrictions, but he was recently granted the opportunity with the help of his management team,” read a statement posted to the Nah Apologize singer’s Instagram on Tuesday.
“The US is one of the larger markets that welcomed his crossover endeavours, and he looks to hit the soil in fine style this summer.”
Despite reportedly joining with other Reggae artists in signing the 2007 Reggae Compassionate Act, which renounced homophobia and pledged to drop homophobic lyrics from their music, Sizzla’s lyrics and vocal criticisms of homosexuality during his performances remain unchanged.
His US work visa was first revoked in 2008, which caused him to cancel numerous tour dates that year.
Eight years later, he was granted a three-year work permit and a five-year visitor’s visa, allowing him to perform for his 2016 “876 tour,” which kicked off with “Reggae on the River” in Garberville, California.
The North Coast Journal reported at the time that the Reggae on the River Festival had “received ‘assurances’ from controversial headliner Sizzla Kalonji’s management that ‘no derogatory speech will occur’ during his performance, and staff is prepared to pull the plug on the show if the dancehall star does not follow through.”
The performance went on as planned despite strong protests from some in the community.
During a post-performance press conference, Sizzla revealed that “the petition for the visa getting here was through Reggae on the River, naturally, and Patriot Artists Agency, so it’s a whole business process.”
“My duty here is to do Reggae on the River and to try and see if I could get some other shows based on the length of the visa being issued unto me,” he added.
However, by 2019, Sizzla was removed from the “Reggae on the River” line-up that year “because he’s repeatedly sang about shooting gays in the head,” according to the California newspaper, Times Standard.
Since then, he’s denounced Spice for headlining the 2021 ‘Toronto Pride’ festival, contending that ‘righteousness, Reggae and homosexuality’ do not go together. “None a dem nastiness bout yah unu gweh. You’ll not corrupt our children any more,” he wrote in an Instagram post at the time.
“Jamaican artists already knew that our indigenous music bashes against homosexuals and lesbianism. We Jamaicans bash against anything that is corrupt and misleading to our nation if people. Do not mix reggae and Dancehall with your evil nasty ways; no to guns; no to gays; no to lesbian; no to paedophilia; no to all what’s wrong and going against our culture,” he added.
In 2022, during a performance in Jamaica, Sizzla declared that he would not stop rebuking homosexuals and that he did not care whether or not he was granted a visa.
“Nuh man caan tell me seh nuh fi bun nuh b-ttyman. You waan me stap bun b-ttyman fi get visa? Yuh mussi mad man. Hear mi now; si di whole a fi mi visa dem yah suh. A my fans a my visa, yuh hear?” he said. He did not spare lesbians either. “No lesbian ooman inna di house; think oonu get weh to? There is a balance; equilibrium,” he added.
During another performance at an event in Jamaica last July, Sizzla brought up the matter of his US visa again. At the time, there was a diplomatic row between the United States and Jamaica, which reportedly began brewing after the Andrew Holness administration refused to accredit the same-sex spouse of an American diplomat.
“B-ttyman f-ck off! And lef Jamaica! An keep yuh visa tuh!” he said while on stage.
“An mi si oonu a promote b-ttyman flag up a American embassy. Mi nuh too waan guh up deh. Suh if mi nuh get no visa fi guh a America a nu no problem,” he added.
Sizzla’s statement on Tuesday noted that, while he was without his US travel documents, he had been taking his talents to other countries, including Japan in 2023.
It said he has also been busy “building Judgment Yard in August Town, St. Catherine, and connecting with many Artists including Burna Boy, Chance The Rapper, Bounty Killa, and many others locally and internationally.”
The Boston event is being spearheaded by Lion Production Group.
The statement added: “His return to the United States will allow more opportunities for him there, and fans in Boston and the rest of the nation are urged to gear up for the upcoming announcements.”