Andrew W.K. will not be taking his brand of party diplomacy to Bahrain as he had originally planned. He said on his Web site on Tuesday that the United States State Department had withdrawn an invitation to play a concert sponsored by the United States Embassy in Manama, the capital. He had said earlier that the State Department had asked him to be a cultural ambassador to Bahrain, a religiously conservative Muslim country, “promoting music, freedom and positive party power.”
But late on Monday a state department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said embassy officials had changed their minds about showcasing Andrew W.K., a rapper and party-anthem rocker, after they reviewed his work, which includes songs like “Party ‘Til You Puke.”
“We had a Bahraini entity that approached the embassy about co-sponsoring a visit by this guy, who I take it is pretty popular there in Bahrain,” Ms. Nuland said, according to NPR. “That was initially approved, and then when more senior management at the embassy took a look at this, the conclusion was that this was not an appropriate use of U.S. government funds.”
She said United States diplomats had determined, “when they looked at the body of his work, that we didn’t need to be part of this invitation.” She added: “There may have been some preliminary conversations with him, but he will not be going to Bahrain on the U.S. government’s dime.”
Andrew W.K., whose full last name is Wilkes-Krier, took the news badly, sending a Twitter message on Monday saying, “I’m just blown away.” On Tuesday he released a statement on his Web site in which he said the United States Embassy in Bahrain had reached out to him more than a year ago and invited him not only to perform but also to give motivational speeches.
He said officials in the public affairs office at the United States Embassy in Manama had led him to believe through months of preparations and a background check that the trip had been approved. That changed around noon on Monday, he said.
“I was scheduled to fly to Bahrain on Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012,” Mr. Wilkes-Krier wrote in his statement. “We received our official itinerary from the State Dept. at 5:58 a.m., on Monday, Nov. 26, 2012. Less than six hours later, we received an urgent telephone call informing us that the entire trip had been canceled, due to some higher level controversy.”
He added: “You can’t judge a book by its cover. I would’ve done a great job and represented our nation with dignity and pride.”