Gwen Stefani - Malaysian concert in doubt

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Gwen Stefani’s upcoming show in Malaysia is in doubt as a group of students are calling for the gig to be cancelled.

Gwen is currently on a world tour and had planned to play in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur on 21 August.  However, the 10,000 members of the National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students are calling for a boycott of the concert because they think she dresses inappropriately and that her lyrics are too indecent.

It is lines such as “Take a chance, you stupid ho” (from her hit What You Waiting For?) and outfits from her own clothing line, LAMB, including gold hot pants and leopard catsuits that have offended the Muslim community.

Mohammad Hilmi Ramli, the group’s president, said, “Her video clips promoting the event are too obscene. We want the organizers to cancel the concert, failing which we will ask the authorities to intervene.”

Mr Ramli also spoke out against the promoters of the concert, Malaysian phone company Maxis Communications, “Maxis has been staging a series of foreign acts to make a profit and to expose our young generation to things such as moral decay.”

The NUMMS have also recently campaigned for their government to ban German rock group Scorpions from performing in Malaysia on Friday.

Ethnic Malays, who are by definition Muslims, make up more than 50% of Malaysia’s population of 26 million.

Gwen is currently in Australia as part of her Sweet Escape tour and, as well as the gig at Kuala Lumpur’s Stadium Putra, she also has dates planned for Japan, Singapore, Thailand, China and Hawaii before several shows in Europe.

The American singer, who is married to Bush lead singer Gavin Rossdale, came to fame in 1992 as the lead singer of No Doubt.  Her first solo album, Love. Angel. Music. Baby, was released in 2004 and is also the name of her clothing line.