Following Queen Ifrica's recent run-in with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community which saw her being barred from performing at Invasion of the Queens concert in New York, music industry participants are asking their colleagues to make songs tackling other issues excluding the LGBT community.

According to veteran reggae artiste Tappa Zukie, known for singles Oh Lord and Raggy Joey Boy, it's clear that some battles are not worth fighting.

"It is not everything you can prevent; We just need to make good and original music to make people happy and to make them dance. To each his own, and we should not be judging others either, because what a man chooses to do with his life is his business," he said.

Radio disc jockey DJ Sunshine shared a similar perspective. The DJ, who recently released a dancehall rhythm called Wul Dem says she reached out to Queen Ifrica following her recent controversy and advised her to direct her attention to other issues of importance.

"When I saw that she was pulled from the show, I sent her a message and told her that she has a voice to give people messages. Therefore, she should focus on other issues like racism, molestation and others. She has done so much good music, so focusing on negative things is not needed right now. The artistes need to be doing more uplifting music that rings closer home to all of us," DJ Sunshine said.

Gorsett Welds, the manager of recording artiste Ghost, says entertainers have freedom to express themselves and should not be prevented from exercising that. However, music that promotes violence should not produced.

"At the end of the day, her music is not promoting hate, right, so she should have been allowed to perform. There are other persons that are doing greater injustice to the world and people are not demonstrating against that. We have to stand up for something once the lyrics are not inciting violence like kill diss and kill dat. Why shouldn't she be allowed to perform? It is a very unfortunate situation that we can't use our freedom of expression. I believe the artistes learned from Shabba's experience and they haven't been recording hate music, so the demonstrators just want to prove a point," he said.

This is the second time Queen Ifrica has been barred from an international performance in recent times.

curtis.campbell@gleanerjm.com