Kehlani Concert in Central Park Is Canceled After Pressure From Mayor

The nonprofit group behind the SummerStage concerts has canceled a scheduled Central Park performance by the popular R&B singer Kehlani under pressure from the administration of Mayor Eric Adams.

The move came on Monday after a top New York City official warned the group, the City Parks Foundation, that its license to stage the long-running concert series could be at risk if it did not “promptly take steps” to address “security concerns” raised by the planned show.

Billed as “Pride With Kehlani,” the concert was to take place on June 26 as part of the city’s broader Pride festivities. It was the second scheduled Kehlani performance to be canceled in recent weeks amid a furor over the singer’s pro-Palestinian stance.

Unlike Cornell University officials, who explicitly cited what they said were Kehlani’s antisemitic and anti-Israel views when they dropped the singer two weeks ago as the headliner of an annual campus concert, the city official, First Deputy Mayor Randy M. Mastro, did not invoke the singer’s personal opinions.

Instead, he said in a letter to the foundation’s executive director, Heather Lubov, that the Adams administration’s concerns were based on “the controversy” surrounding the scheduled Cornell performance, as well as the security demands posed by such an event in Central Park and by other Pride events around the city.

Mr. Mastro wrote that the police would conduct a security assessment of the concert. If the department determined that the event posed “an unacceptable risk to public safety,” he added, there could be implications for SummerStage’s future. The series began in 1986.

“If the foundation does not promptly take steps to ensure public safety, the city reserves all rights and remedies to the foundation’s license,” he wrote in the letter, which was reported earlier by The New York Post.

The foundation said in a statement posted online later Monday that it was scrapping the show based on the issues raised by Mr. Mastro. The statement did not mention the implied threat to the SummerStage license.

“We strongly and emphatically believe in artistic expression of all kinds,” the group said. “However, the safety and security of our guests and artists is of the utmost importance, and in light of these concerns, the concert has been canceled.”

The statement noted that the show was being produced by Live Nation. An email sent to the company seeking comment was not returned. (General admission tickets — $103 to stand; $145 for a bleacher seat — were still for sale via Ticketmaster as of Monday night.)

A spokeswoman for Mr. Adams, a Democrat, said in a statement that the administration was “grateful to the City Parks Foundation for responding to our concerns and canceling the Kehlani concert in Central Park.”

“We look forward to an exciting lineup of other performances this summer,” the spokeswoman, Kayla Mamelak Altus, added.

The free expression group PEN America called the cancellation of the concert “cowardly.”

“It is deeply unsettling to see elected officials using their offices to dictate the bounds of acceptable expression and muscling private entities to fall into line,” Jonathan Friedman, a managing director of the group, said in a statement.

At concerts and on social media, Kehlani, who uses the pronouns she and they, has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s actions in the Gaza conflict.

In a 2024 music video for the song “Next 2 U,” the singer danced in a jacket adorned with kaffiyehs as dancers waved Palestinian flags in the background. During the video’s introduction, the phrase “Long Live the Intifada” appeared against a dark background.

After the Cornell concert was canceled, the singer posted a video on social media in which they said, “I’m being asked and called to clarify and make a statement yet again for the millionth time that I am not antisemitic nor anti-Jew.”

They added: “I am anti-genocide. I am anti the actions of the Israeli government.”

On Monday, Kehlani appeared unfazed by the cancellation of the Central Park concert, which the singer said they had learned about on social media.

In an Instagram story, they wrote, “they canceled this one too,” above an image promoting the show and “lol” atop a screenshot of the foundation’s statement.

“i’m so deeply grounded in my purpose my mission my art my contribution,” they concluded. “back to this album. see you this weekend LA!”