the rapper Rayden has canceled the last concert of his career that he was going to perform in Alcalá de Henares due to the arrival of the “extreme right” in the municipal government and its “censorship and cultural cancellation”, after Vox entered the consistory.
“I had started working on my own road map, together with the previous government of Alcalá de Henares, to give the last concert of my career in this my city. With the arrival of the extreme right in the councils and, seeing with unheard of stupefaction, censorship and cultural cancellation with which art is being punished in locations with the same representation, I see myself with the moral duty to cancel my performance scheduled for the end of August 2024,” the artist said in a statement.
He has pointed this out after announcing that he would end his musical career in his hometown by offering a free concert in the Plaza de Cervantes after announcing last March his intention to retire from the stage in 2024.
Rayden will thus end his concert tour in September 2024 and his concert at the Wizink Center -scheduled for December 2, 2023- will be his last concert in the Community of Madrid, not including festivals or large parties.
“I am deeply sorry for the inconvenience this decision may cause, but my conscience would not leave me alone if it were from the same hand that promotes and profits from hatred, that sends the LGTBI+ collective to the trash, that votes against the trans law and that sees them, along with the immigrant population, as third-class citizens, deprived of the same rights as the rest,” the rapper said.
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In this regard, the councilor for Festivals and Popular Traditions of the Alcalá City Council, Antonio Saldaña, has been “surprised” by this decision. “We regret this attitude”, he has expressed in statements to Europa Press. He thus explained that they planned to go ahead with this concert because he is a local artist and his intention is to promote them. The mayor has criticized that Rayden alludes to “ideological and political issues that apparently have nothing to do with the city”since it appeals to Vox’s control of the Culture area, something that does not happen in Alcalá.
“In Alcalá no work is being censored,” he defended, while stressing that if Rayden follows this premise he should also cancel other concerts. “We are surprised and we are sorry. But come on, think about it, there is a lot left for the holidays and we are open to collaborating”, the councilor added.
