Did Andrea Bocelli cancel his New York City concert after Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor, saying "I don't sing for communists"? No, that's not true: There are multiple social media posts showing Bocelli and other artists including Jason Aldean, Kid Rock, Brandon Lake, Steven Tyler and George Strait with a message saying that they have canceled upcoming concerts in New York City because they "don't sing for communists." The article linked to in the Facebook post about Bocelli with the claims appears to be AI-generated. At the time of writing, there was no such cancelation by Bocelli or any of the other artists in the news.
The claim appeared in a November 11,2025 post on Facebook account @CountryMusicMelody (archived here). It included a photo of Bocelli and Mamdani with the caption:
🔥 BREAKING NEWS: Andrea Bocelli cancels all scheduled performances in New York City for next year, declaring boldly:
"Sorry, New York -- but I don't sing for communists." 😳🎤
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post on Facebook account @CountryMusicMelody.)
Below is an embedded link to the post:
The Facebook posts links to an article on hotnews.otoarizasi.com titled, BREAKING NEWS: Andrea Bocelli Cancels all scheduled performances in New York City for next year, declaring boldly: "Sorry New York - but I don't sing for communists." The article does not mention NYC mayor-elect Mamdani, however, it contains a photo of Bocelli next to a photo of Mamdani, insinuating his election is the reason he is canceling his concerts. The article lays out the claim:
The classical music world was thrown into absolute chaos this morning when Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, one of the most beloved and respected vocalist on the planet, announced that he is canceling all of his scheduled performances in New York City for 2026, issuing a statement that stunned fans, critics, and political commentators alike.
His words were a few - but explosive:
"Sorry, New York - but I don't sing for communists."
Those eleven words set off a fire storm across social media, instantly dividing fans and igniting one of the most unexpected cultural debates of the year. Within hours, hashtags like #BocelliBoycott, #IStandWithAndrea, and #CancelCultureSymphony were trending worldwide.
Lead Stories ran the text in the article through AI detection tools on GPTZero.me and the results said that snippet was 100% likely written by AI, as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of GPTZero.me website.)
The page transparency tab of the "Country Music Melody" Facebook page (archived here) indicates it is being managed from Vietnam, as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of facebook.com/countrymusicmelody.)
The Vietnam origin does not, in and of itself, prove the post is fake, but Lead Stories has debunked many other AI-generated fake stories originating from Facebook pages managed overseas and linking to low-quality fly-by-night websites, which could be characterized as "made-for-advertising" or MFA sites (archived here), which harvest advertiser fees with little investment in site content.
There are several variations of the claim about Bocelli a search on Facebook shows (archived here).
A search of Google News did not return any matching news reports of Bocelli canceling his NYC concerts. The Yahoo! News index of partner news sites and news services (archived here) showed no legitimate news reports and only copies of the clickbait story of Bocelli canceling his NYC concerts.
A Facebook search by Lead Stories showing numerous fake posts purporting to be from artists Jason Aldean, Kid Rock, Brandon Lake, Steven Tyler and George Strait saying that they are canceling their concerts in NYC because they don't sing for "communists" or "commies." There is no evidence that any of these artists have canceled concerts in response to Mamdani's election.
A Google search for Aldean, Kid Rock, Tyler, Lake and Strait did not find any news reports about the canceled concerts. A Yahoo! News search also did not find any reports of Aldean, Kid Rock, Tyler, Lake and Strait canceling concerts and only copies of the clickbait story of them canceling concerts.
Lead Stories created a Gif to show the many celebrities who have fake posts about them:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshots added to gif for display.)
