Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser accused New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell of having Lafayette Christian pop star Lauren Daigle booted from an ABC New Year’s Eve special, but a report by NOLA.com says Daigle was never in contention for the show.
Nungesser told LRN Tuesday that Cantrell opposed including Lafayette Christian pop star Lauren Daigle in the ABC program.
“She wrote the letter to Dick Clark and expressed that she did not want Lauren to be anywhere on their network that night, and I understand that they did not want the controversy,” said Nungesser.
But that report, citing ABC and sources close to Daigle, said Daigle was not scheduled to play the event and that Nungesser’s claim that Cantrell pressured ABC into ditching Daigle “categorically false”.
When Nungesser heard of Cantrell’s opposition to Daigle performing in New Orleans he said he pushed to hold her ABC performance in Jefferson Parish.
“We had gotten the Louis Armstrong boat and put it in Gretna and still give the City some publicity by putting it in the backdrop,” said Nungesser. It appears that proposal was rejected due to production costs.
The report claimed Nungesser pushed hard for Daigle, the brand ambassador for the state’s Feed Your Soul tourism campaign. When he discovered she would not be on the broadcast he pulled a state contract helping to finance the event. The City of New Orleans is now planning to pickup sharing the production costs for the program and the Fleur Dis Lis will still drop on ABC in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve.
The dispute stems from an incident over the summer when Daigle headlined a crowded, illegal concert in the French Quarter. The city had asked concert organizers not to hold the event due to COVID, but organizers pushed ahead, labeling it a protest.
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