Homophobic Jamaican singer Sizzla plans return to Canada in September
In the past, LGBTQ rights protests have led to cancellation of his concerts.
Despite his notoriously homophobic past, Jamaican murder music artist Sizzla is scheduled to return to Canada in Toronto in September 2025, following on his appearance in Montreal in July 2024.
Performer of “Pump Up” in 2001, which contains explicit calls for violence against homosexuals, his arrival on Canadian soil has yet to cause a stir, even though the singer has never denied his homophobia. For example, these lyrics:
“Shot battybwoy my big gun boom”!
“Fire fi di man dem weh go ride man behind”.
Battyman is a derogatory Jamaican term, typically used against homosexuals.
Sizzla sings such songs even after signing the Compassionate Act in 2007, a pledge made by certain dancehall artists, notably Jamaican, to renounce lyrics inciting violence, particularly against LGBTQ+ people.
But as early as 2009, Sizzla renounced that pledge. He declared in “Nah Apologize” that he would never apologize for his words and beliefs, including his stance against homosexuality.
“Rastaman don’t apologize to no batty-boy”.
“If yuh dis’ Black Woman, then mih gun will shot yuh boy”.
“Gimme de ghetto girls because ah dem have up de joy”.
“Inna de lake of fire me dash yuh…gwaah”!
As he prepares his return to Canadian soil, the controversy surrounding Sizzla’s musical legacy and homophobic fingerprint continues, while Spotify continues to monetize his most extreme murder-music tracks.
So far, Sizzla has provoked much less opposition in Canada than he has in the past, when protests in 2007 by the Stop Murder Music Canada coalition led to his concerts in Montreal and Toronto being canceled.
Similarly, he was denied entry to Germany in 2008 after his visa was cancelled. Several Sizzla concerts scheduled in Germany in 2009 and 2010 were also canceled after public protests. The same thing happened to his planned European concerts in Madrid, Ghent, Stockholm, and Lisbon in 2012.
