On Monday, 60-year-old Canadian rockstar Bryan Adams kicked off an abusive racist rant against coronavirus pandemic. He was widely lambasted on Twitter for the post, which many users considered racist.
Adams shared a video of himself playing his 1983 hit “Cuts Like a Knife” on a guitar on Instagram Monday morning. In the caption, he bemoaned a series of canceled concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London, blaming it on wet market vendors.
“Tonight was supposed to be the beginning of a tenancy of gigs at the Royal Albert Hall, but thanks to some f—ing bat eating, wet market animal selling, virus making greedy bastards, the whole world is now on hold, not to mention the thousands that have suffered or died from this virus,” he wrote.
Some people believe wet markets in Wuhan, China, were the the original source of coronavirus. A wet market is a type of live-produce vendor that gets its name from its wet floors. However, there is no confirmed connection between COVID-19 and the Wuhan wet markets.
“My message to them other than “thanks a f—ing lot” is go vegan,” Adams added.
To all the people missing out on our shows, I wish I could be there more than you know. It’s been great hanging out in isolation with my children and family, but I miss my other family, my band, my crew and my fans. Take care of yourselves and hope we can get the show on the road again soon. I’ll be performing a snippet from each album we were supposed to perform for the next few days. X❤️ “
He also added the hashtags ‘#banwetmarkets’ and ‘#govegan.’
Wet markets are any marketplaces selling produce, fish and meat, and not all wet markets sell live animals.
Almost instantly the singer was called out on his racism and xenophobic remarks on Twitter and Instagram.
‘Man we were killin’ time / We were young and racist / We needed to unwind,’ wrote the Los Angeles Times’ Chief Film Critic Justin Chang, who paraphrased lyrics from Summer Of ’69.
Another user was also inspired by Adams’ hit.
‘BRYAN ADAMS: wrote my first real racist tweet / my career was already in decline / blaming the Chinese for my lack of income / was the summer of COVID one-nine,’ they wrote.
The musician rose to fame in Canada and the United States with his 1983 album “Cuts Like a Knife” and 1984 album “Reckless.” His music has received 15 Grammy nominations and his songwriting for films has gotten five Golden Globe nods and three Academy Award nominations.
