The “Loyal” singer claims that the producers of Sunday’s American Music Awards abruptly canceled his Michael Jackson tribute.
The “Look at Me Now” rapper resorted to Instagram to voice his grievances on Saturday, releasing a seven-minute rehearsal footage of his female dancers putting in work.
Beginning with “Under the Influence,” the performance changes to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” to which Brown and his dancers can be seen performing. Even Jackson’s legendary choreography was incorporated into their renditions of “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” “Billie Jean,” and “Thriller.”
This month marks the 40th anniversary of the “Thriller” album. ABC, which will broadcast the AMAs on Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post.
“U SERIOUS?” Brown, dressed in a silky green ensemble, captioned his rehearsal clip with the face-palm emoji.
“I would have performed at the amas, but they cancelled me for unexplained reasons,” the 33-year-old performer explained in the comments.
Brown has in the past been compared to Jackson, but he says the analogies are “ridiculous.”
Brown said Big Boy in an interview, “There is no way to compete with him.” “Hell no. I have shrines of this man adorning my home. No way, I’m inferior than Michael Jackson.”
In the Instagram comments, fans rushed to the singer’s defense, describing the cancellation as “sick” and expressing sorrow.
Taylor Terry, who toured with Brown, exclaimed, “You were so ecstatic!” “The entire squad, on and off the court, was ecstatic!!! “I’ve never left a rehearsal without feeling shivers!”
Another commenter agreed: “The fact that they canceled and you STILL gave us this AMAZING a** performance demonstrates what a fantastic artist you are.” This was pure GOLD.
Someone else wrote, “THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN THE PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR.”
A week following the publishing of chapters of a memoir that Aaron Carter allegedly co-wrote, Brown makes his AMA claims. The deceased pop artist claimed he had an embarrassing underwear meeting with Jackson at his Neverland Ranch when they were both teenagers. This week, the sale of Carter’s memoir was suspended due to opposition from his close associates. He passed away in 2009.
Brown is uncertain as to why the AMAs reportedly canceled his performance, but his turbulent background may be to blame. TMZ theorized that his incident with R&B artist Rihanna a decade ago could be the cause for the snub.
In 2009, 19-year-old Brown was arrested for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, then 20. Subsequently, he pled guilty to one count of felony assault.
Brown has not been absent from the news since then. In 2012, he was accused of hitting a woman during a dispute at his Los Angeles residence. In January of this year, he was accused of drugging and raping a lady in Miami in 2020.
In an attempt to defend his name of sexual assault allegations, the Grammy winner stated in an Instagram story that the allegations were false and that he was done with people “dragging me through the dirt.”
He then provided images of chats between him and his accuser, which reportedly demonstrated that she attempted to seek a connection with the singer after the incident was reported.
Despite his self-proclaimed innocence, A-list celebrities who associate with Brown frequently receive internet criticism.
This year, people criticized R&B singer Normani, 26, for participating in Chris Brown’s music video for “WE (Warm Embrace).” She can be seen grinding against the singer and even exchanging a kiss in the clip.
Fans of Normani criticized the young artist for linking herself with Brown.
“Idk why the new R&B girls feel the need to collaborate with him,” one user complained in a tweet that was retweeted thousands of times.
“Ella Mai, Chloe, HER, and now Normani. It’s disappointing. Since 2012, he has repeated his behavior toward women, kicked dark-skinned women out of the clubs he frequents, and released the same song.