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Anita Baker has removed Babyface as the support act for her ‘The Songstress’ tour after receiving online “abuse” she suffered from his fans.
The tour was announced to honour the 40th anniversary of Baker’s 1983 debut album, ‘The Songstress’.
However, this week saw Baker take to Twitter to share her frustrations with Babyface performing longer than “contractually” obligated and also called him her “special guest/support act.” Fans of Babyface would then call Baker names and “harass” her following her comments on the singer-songwriter. This resulted in the ‘Caught Up In The Rapture’ singer asking him to “call off” his fans, whom she dubbed “Kenny’s Crazies.”
Now, the Ohio singer has announced that Babyface will no longer be her opening act on tour from now on. In a tweet, she penned: “After silently enduring cyber-bullying/verbal abuse [and] threats of violence from the fan base of our special guest/support act, in the interest of personal safety, I will continue ‘The Songstress’ tour alone. Appropriate refunds will be made. Blessings.”
Responding to the announcement about being pulled from the shows, Babyface said: I am saddened by the news that Anita Baker has decided to remove me from ‘The Songstress Tour’. I
“t’s unfortunate and disheartening to see how things have played out via social media. While I was looking forward to the rest of the dates, I have nothing but love & respect for Anita and I wish her the best for the remainder of the tour.”
— Babyface (@babyface) June 13, 2023
In May, a scheduled show in Newark, New Jersey was heavily delayed due to technical issues and Babyface’s set was cancelled so Baker could deliver her full performance.
Giving a statement to PEOPLE, the 12-time Grammy winner explained that production crews were unable to get a video screen running in time for his performance: “As advanced as technology is today we are sometimes at its mercy. The video wall was unfortunately not working that day and time wasn’t on our side.”
Anita’s first solo stop will be in Chicago on June 30. You can find tickets here and check out the remaining dates below.
The US ‘Songstress’ tour dates are
JUNE
30 – Chicago, United Center
JULY
2 – Detroit, Pine Knob Music Theatre
NOVEMBER
18 – Greensboro, Greensboro Coliseum Complex
22 – Memphis, FedEx Forum
24 – Atlantic City, Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena
DECEMBER
15 – Houston, Toyota Center
17 – Dallas, American Airlines Center
22 – Los Angeles, Crypto.com Arena
23 – Oakland, Oakland Arena
In May 2022, Baker thanked Chance The Rapper for helping her reclaim her masters whilst performing at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas. “Would you guys say hello to a friend of mine, by way of the music industry, and by way of helping me to get ahold and ownership of my master recordings?” she said, before gesturing for Chance The Rapper to come out. Taylor Swift also congratulated her on getting her masters back.
Meanwhile, in August 2021, Babyface helped Earth, Wind & Fire refix their 1975 song ‘Can’t Hide Love’ alongside Lucky Daye.
