Just a day after her concert was cancelled by a local radio station due to her “personal life” this country singer is taking a stand and speaking out about the incident and how it has made her feel – especially as a woman in country music.
Scheduled to play a concert alongside rising country star, Chase Bryant, as a promo for the Brad Paisley concert they were opening for in Sacramento, Lindsay Ell was informed late that she had been removed from the lineup.
Taking to social media, Ell refused to let her fans down and informed them that the cancellation was not by her choice, and instead explained that she’d been pulled from performing because of of her personal life.
Had a scheduled performance in Sacramento today for listeners. The radio station has asked me not to come bc of my personal life. Sorry guys
— Lindsay Ell (@lindsayell) June 16, 2017
While she didn’t directly say it in that tweet, it soon was revealed that the station citing her “personal life” was a direct reference to her boyfriend’s wildly successful career (Bobby Bones) with a competing radio brand, iHeart Media. The station she was supposed to perform at is part of CBS Radio, and competes heavily with local iHeart affiliate The Bull 92.5.
As word of the pulled performance spread (and the likely reasoning behind it), the local station issued a statement to The Washington Post that expressed remorse.
“Lindsay is an amazingly talented, up-and-coming artist and today we regrettably made a bad decision to cancel her show. We only hope that she — and our listeners — will forgive us, and that Lindsay and her team will allow us to reschedule the show.”
That same news outlet broke the story of the cancelled performance over her boyfriend’s career, and also shared Ell’s first public statement about the matter.
“It felt like, all of a sudden, you can’t be a powerful female with goals and dreams and date another powerful person,” Ell explained to The Washington Post. “It’s frustrating to me because I feel like it shouldn’t matter what a guy or a girl [does] in their free time — that shouldn’t affect their business.”
The rising country starlet went on to speak about how she believes it would have been different if the gender roles were reversed and said, “I just don’t think what happened to me is an isolated thing.”
“It seems like women are having an extremely hard time getting on the radio as it is. Females are criticized for other things than just the music. It’s hard being a woman in a male-dominated industry.”
The president of her record label also spoke out on the incident, saying that stations have verbally told the label they will not play her music or would wait longer to play it simply because of her affiliation with iHeart Media personality, Bobby Bones.
Ell brought the situation full circle and expressed a deep desire to move forward from it, acknowledging, “Everyone makes mistakes.”
What do you think about the radio station’s decision to pull her performance? Let us know in the comments.