UPDATE
Ellen has confirmed that Kim Burrell will not be appearing on her show later this week.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE BELOW
This Friday, the film “Hidden Figures” releases in theaters nationwide, but what should be a celebratory week has gotten very controversial for soundtrack producer Pharrell Williams and star Janelle Monae. The whole controversy centers around Kim Burrell, a legendary gospel star who Pharrell tapped for the movie soundtrack’s lead single “I See A Victory,” and an ill-fated, gay-bashing sermon Burrell gave last week.
In a segment of the sermon that was videotaped and uploaded on December 30, Kim Burrell touches upon homosexuality. She says, “The perverted homosexual spirit, and the spirit of delusion and confusion, and it has deceived many men and women.” After the video went viral, Kim Burrell received criticism from many, many people and defended herself on a Facebook Live video and gave an odd, half-apology to the LGBT community.
Since the incident, Pharrell and Janelle Monae both (indirectly) decried Burrell’s sermon and video in Instagram posts (see below). The venerated gospel singer had already performed “I See A Victory” on one late night talk show and was slated to perform the song on "Ellen" this Thursday, January 5. However, Monae suggested that Burrell was removed from the performance in a TMZ interview this morning, saying, “I don’t think she’s performing,” and then stating she will not stand for hate speech of any kind.
Do you think Ellen did the right thing by taking Kim Burrell off the performance?
