.

Carly Rae Jepsen Drops Boy Scouts Concert Over Anti-Gay Policy

Singer cancels show in solidarity with Change.org petition

Carly Rae Jepsen in Hollywood, California.
Michael Tran/FilmMagic
March 5, 2013 3:00 PM ET

Carly Rae Jepsen has canceled a concert appearance for the Boy Scouts of America because of her opposition to the organization's controversial policy banning openly gay members. The 27 year-old Canadian singer announced her withdrawal from July's National Scout Jamboree on Twitter.

Jepsen whose music has few traces of politics, egalitarian or otherwise threw her hat into the ideological ring Tuesday morning, tweeting her support of the "ongoing battle for gay rights" as "an artist who believes in equality for all people."

Top 25 Songs of 2012: Carly Rae Jepsen, 'Call Me Maybe'

Jepsen's cancellation comes on the heels of another Jamboree headliner's tentative dropping out: the band Train said yesterday that they would only play the July concert if the Boy Scouts of America makes “the right decision before then" — a reference to a meeting in May, when the policy will go up for a vote.

In protesting the Boy Scouts' policy, both Jepsen and Train acknowledged a petition on Change.org that encouraged them to remove themselves from the concert's lineup. The petition, started by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, has supporters that number in the tens of thousands.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

prev
Music Main Next

blog comments powered by Disqus
Daily Newsletter

Get the latest RS news in your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Rolling Stone newsletter and special offers from RS and its
marketing partners.

X

We may use your e-mail address to send you the newsletter and offers that may interest you, on behalf of Rolling Stone and its partners. For more information please read our Privacy Policy.

Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

More Song Stories entries »