“I have received threats several times and I have always shown myself to be as courageous as possible, but this was starting to be worrying, especially for my audience”, singer Bilal Hassani confided on Wednesday in the program C to you on France 5.
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“I’m starting to get a little bit tired, I’ve been exposed for four years, I’m still a human being, I’m 23, I started when I was 19, it’s a lot to wear on my shoulders”, admits Wednesday, April 5, in the program C to you on France 5, the singer Bilal Hassani. The artist, who for several years has suffered homophobic harassment campaigns on social networks, had to cancel his concert scheduled for Wednesday in Metz in an old church following “threats made” against him and “His public” as part of this concert, explains Live Nation producer of the singer.
Find your audience, “when it’s going to calm down”
The event was controversial within radical Catholic movements and the far right in Metz. According to France Bleu Lorraine Nord, the Aurora Lorraine collective spoke of a “threat” of which it would be necessary “protect” the building, and called LGBT people “societal cancer”. “When at 5 years old I started the conservatory I had no idea that my career was going to look like this, explained Bilan Hassani. I like to sing, I like to dance and I know that I make people feel good. It bursts in at times and I tell myself that it will calm down and when it will calm down I will be able to find my audience and when I find them it’s magic. But it’s really a shame, we were starting a tour and this concert was sold out and it was ruined again. I feel like we’re moving forward, it’s a little scary.”
“It happened to me several times to receive threats and I always showed myself as brave as possible but there, it was starting to be worrying especially for my public and with my producer we had to cancel at the last minutesays Bilan Hassani. There was a rally call that was going to be around town, they tried to target my fans. That’s the thing that terrifies me the most.”because “these are young people who come to have fun, to have a good time. It’s been a long time since I came to Metz. It made me happy to be able to go back”.
“We will continue, we wanted to do this tour in an atypical place. It was never my intention to provoke.”
Bilal Hassanion France 5
“My shows have always been for everyone. This tour has only just begun, it’s a bit complicated but we’re still going to be there in two days in Toulouse, replied Bilal Hassani. I don’t do pornographic performances, I’ve never done one”. He considers it pure and simple homophobia on the part of the Aurora Lorraine collective, because this former church, “It’s a place that has hosted exhibitions for a very long time, it’s a public, cultural place that hosts shows all the time and we never talk about it. I understand the mission behind all this, all the messages that ‘we received all these threats because it’s me and that’s what’s sad”.