Embattled Chicago R&B artist R. Kelly said Thursday he won’t perform at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week.
“Despite the rumors circulating online, R. Kelly will not be performing at this year’s inauguration ceremony. Any reports stating otherwise are simply untrue,” Kelly said in a Twitter post that featured a yellow background.
Kelly, who was born Robert Kelly and raised on the South Side, joins the legion of other artists, including South Side rapper Kanye West and Elton John, who won’t perform at the inauguration, set for Jan. 20 in Washington, D.C.
Country singer Toby Keith, actress/singer Jennifer Holliday and rock band 3 Doors Down are among the acts slated to play the inaugural festivities, a representative for Trump’s inaugural committee said Friday.
Kelly, meanwhile, is the face of a new Alexander Wang fashion campaign with 23-year-old model Anna Ewers. He dropped a holiday album in October and is set to perform at the Soulquarius event in California next month, despite a petition calling for his removal from the festival bill because of the “endless flood of abuse allegations” against him.
He was acquitted by a Cook County jury of child pornography charges in 2008 after being accused of making a sex tape with an underage girl.
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