AFL boss Andrew Dillon has said Snoop Dogg will do a “great job” as the headline act for the grand final. (Prince Williams/FilmMagic/ Morgan Hancock/Getty Images)
The boss of Australian rules football has backed Snoop Dogg ahead of the rapper’s performance at the grand final.
Last month, Dogg faced backlash for saying that the inclusion of a queer character in Disney’s 2022 film Lightyear left him “scared” to take his grandchildren to the cinema. He has not reacted to the criticism, according to his representatives, despite a viral comment at first believed to have been written by the star.
And now Australian Football League (AFL) chief executive Andrew Dillon has backed the rapper, saying he would do a “great job” as the headline act for the grand final.
‘It will be an amazing spectacle’
“What I’m looking forward to over the next four weeks is the most important nine games of the year,” Dillon said on Monday (1 September). “Then we’ll get to the last Saturday in September and we’ll have the two best teams there.
“The grand final entertainment will add to what will be an amazing spectacle… it will be at a level that we haven’t seen for a long time, he’ll do a great job.”
It was important for people to recognise Dogg as the “person he is today,” and that the AFL could not vouch for “every lyric in every song ever written or performed by any artist who has or will appear on our stage”, Dillon added.
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The rapper’s comments, made on the It’s Giving podcast, came on the same day Dillon defended signing him for the big day. Dogg recalled watching the Toy Story spin-off which featured a same-sex kiss, with his grandson, who asked him: “Papa Snoop, how she have a baby with a woman? She’s a woman.”
Dogg told listeners he had felt: “Aw s**t, I didn’t come for this s**t, I came here to watch the goddamn movie. Y’all throwing me in the middle of this s**t that I don’t have an answer for.”
He went on to say: “It threw me for a loop.”
The singer is now frightened to watch films, fearing he might have to acknowledge the existence of LGBTQ+ people and their relationships.
He also complained that the kiss was not appropriate for a children’s film and about LGBTQ+ representation being “everywhere”. The remarks came on the day Adelaide’s Izak Rankine was given a reduced suspension for “medical” reasons after he used a homophobic slur during a game.
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