R. Kelly's NYC Concert Canceled

R. Kelly’s show at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday has been canceled. Promoters for the Memory Lane Tour stop told Spin that the cancellation was due to Hurricane Florence.

According to Victory Promotions, a South Carolina-based promoter, the poor forecast has made it difficult for the production crew working on the event to travel to New York for the Saturday performance.

Neither R. Kelly, Victory Promotions nor the Hulu Theater have formally announced the cancelation of this Saturday’s show, but have removed the date from their social media and sites.

Spin reported that earlier this week, the Ticketmaster site for the show still had a large inventory of tickets still available. A majority of seats were still open for the middle section, while the a significant portion the level 100 seats were also available. The rear sections were entirely closed to sales.

Victory Promotions assured Spin over the phone that the cancelation had nothing to do with ticket sales.

The cancelation also comes one day after R. Kelly’s younger brother, Carey Kelly, accused R. Kelly of molesting their 14-year-old cousin. Carey adds that the same cousin gave birth a few years after the alleged abuse started but would not state whether he believed the child to be his brother’s.

Saturday’s show marked one of Kelly’s biggest headlining gigs as the R&B singer continues to face an onslaught of new sexual abuse allegations. A #MuteRKelly hashtag was created earlier in the year to as Times Up activists asked concertgoers to boycott Kelly over the allegations that he has denied.

In response to the accusations, Kelly released the misleadingly titled 19-minute track “I Admit” in July. On the track, Kelly admits to having to tour because he is broke, that he was molested at the age of 14 and that he has had sex with a lot of women, but it was all consensual.

Only one other performance is slated for 2018. The singer is scheduled to play the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix on Oct. 26.

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