The list of artists who want nothing to do with R. Kelly is growing. TMZ reports that Céline Dion will also pull her collaboration with the accused abuser following Lady Gaga’s decision to do the same last week. Her team is reportedly in the process of yanking Dion and Kelly’s Grammy-nominated 1998 duet “I’m Your Angel,” which Kelly also produced and wrote, from all streaming services. The song went No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for six weeks. Gaga also removed her Kelly collab “Do What U Want (With My Body)” from streaming, sharing a statement that she supported Kelly’s alleged victims and that the song was a result of unresolved trauma from her own sexual assault as a teenager. “If I could go back and have a talk with my younger self I’d tell her to go through the therapy I have since then,” she said.
Multiple artists, including Chance the Rapper and Phoenix, have distanced themselves from Kelly in the wake of renewed allegations of his alleged sexual abuse spurred by the bombshell Lifetime doc Surviving R. Kelly. (While a select few, like French Montana, have clumsily attempted to express support.) According to a new TMZ report, Kelly’s label RCA/Sony won’t fund or release any new music from him for the foreseeable future as it looks into voiding his contract. The report also noted that artists have been turning down Kelly collaborations left and right. Kelly is currently under investigation in both Georgia and Illinois regarding his alleged sex crimes.
