{"id":25712,"date":"2025-10-29T05:14:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T05:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/25712\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T05:14:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T05:14:15","slug":"is-brian-mcknight-the-best-houston-can-do-for-the-citys-annual-christmas-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/25712\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Brian McKnight the best Houston can do for the city’s annual Christmas concert?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City of Houston<\/a> unveiled its official holiday celebration plans on Monday (Oct. 27). While many are celebrating the H-E-B Thanksgiving Day parade, which will feature Christian singer Danny Gokey, country singer Payton Howie and Houston soul singer Kam Franklin, the “Deck the Hall” Christmas tree lighting <\/a>is catching all kinds of flak for having R&B singer Brian McKnight as a headliner.<\/p>\n

Almost immediately, Houstonians took to social media in droves to denounce the move. Houston City Council member Tiffany D. Thomas<\/a> kept it brief, writing on Twitter<\/a>, “Brian McKnight? Hard pass.”<\/p>\n

Others, like Houston-based food influencer Erika Harrison, echoed those sentiments.<\/p>\n

“Now who down at the city thought Brian McKnight was a good option for a holiday event?! He is an AWFUL person,” she wrote<\/a> on Threads. Several people commented with similar questions, ranging from suggestion that it was a “strategic move” to saying the city was “on a budget.”<\/p>\n

Shea Smith, a political pundit known in local circles as a firm critic of Mayor John Whitmire<\/a>, tagged an account dedicated to calling for a recall for Whitmire while asking about the reasoning behind the singer’s booking for the event.<\/p>\n

“BRIAN MCKNIGHT?! The literal worst person in the R&B world?!?!” he exclaimed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Look, I know what you’re asking yourself: Why would there be controversy surrounding the guy who gave us middle school prom hits such as “Back at One,” the spin-the-block classic “Anytime,”or “Love Is” with Vanessa Williams? What could be so bad about him performing on Dec. 6 at Hermann Square at City Hall?<\/p>\n

Well, there are\u00a0layers to get through here.<\/p>\n

McKnight, a 17-time Grammy Award nominee, has faced controversy at numerous points throughout recent years, all stemming from public comments about his ex-wife, Julie McKnight, and his four adult children, including Niko McKnight, who passed away from cancer in May 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The nastiness, from labeling his estranged biological children “products of sin” and “evil” to legally changing his name to align with his newborn Brian Jr.\u00a0with his second wife, Leilani Mendoza, while already having a son named Brian McKnight Jr., is just the tip of the iceberg. This is without including McKnight prematurely celebrating via a strange Instagram video<\/a>, an $8.8 million judgment against his ex-wife in a defamation case stemming from comments made in her memoir.\u00a0 A judge has yet to sign off on the judgment, and Julie McKnight has reportedly filed a motion to get the award dismissed because she was never properly served.<\/p>\n

The video arrived on what would have been\u00a0Nico McKnight’s 33rd birthday, prompting one Twitter user to refer to McKnight as “a real life comic book villain” as McKnight can be seen skipping while audio plays of Julie McKnight asking for Mendoza\u00a0not to contact their son, Niko.<\/p>\n

The social media posts, legal fight and comments have turned off plenty of\u00a0McKnight’s longtime fans who refused to buy tickets to his shows<\/a>. As such, cancellations of the singer’s shows have occurred in cities like Detroit, and even one South Carolina HBCU was moved to “reconsider”\u00a0McKnight’s previously announced performance at a scholarship gala<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Claflin University, in a statement, said it was “exploring other options” regarding its Presidential Scholarship Gala performer and said it “values and respects the perspectives of our constituents and stakeholders.” McKnight’s performance has since been officially canceled.<\/p>\n

In short,\u00a0McKnight has plenty of social baggage to deal with as he gears up to perform his classic songs and holiday tunes alongside the Ernest Walker Band. While Whitmire will lead the countdown to lighting the tree and a fireworks show, he might be getting an earful from certain constituents who find this latest headliner hits the wrong note.<\/p>\n

More Culture<\/p>\n

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For the latest and best from\u00a0Chron,\u00a0sign up for our daily newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally published at Is Brian McKnight the best Houston can do for the city’s annual Christmas concert?<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City of Houston unveiled its official holiday celebration plans on Monday (Oct. 27). While many are celebrating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[18072,18075,3766,56,4626,58,57,3743,18073,18076,18074],"class_list":["post-25712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-brian-mcknight","tag-christmas-tree-lighting","tag-city-of-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-city-council","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-john-whitmire","tag-julie-mcknight","tag-kam-franklin","tag-niko-mcknight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}