Trump vs. the Australian music industry, but our media makes it all about Abbie Chatfield
The Trump regime’s ramped-up border security apparatus ensnared an unexpected victim this week, with Australian musician Adam Hyde (who performs under the name Keli Holiday and is one-half of Peking Duk) being denied entry into the US and, as a result, was forced to return home.
It’s a particularly bizarre case because Hyde, whose song Dancing2 finished number two on Triple J's Hottest 100 countdown, was midway through a North American tour and had already performed a series of shows in the US, before travelling to Toronto to play there.
It was on his return to the US for a final show in New York that he was detained, interrogated and ultimately refused entry. In fact, his whole tour party had their visas cancelled and were forced to return to Australia.
The fickleness of US border officers since Trump’s re-election has been well documented, but as far as we can tell, no Australian touring musician has been rejected in this way. It’s a new precedent that should have the local music industry up in arms, because of how crucial cracking the US market has been to generations of Australian artists.
