Jordin Sparks believes Chris Brown’s performance at the American Music Awards should have not been scrapped.
The Run It singer revealed over the weekend that his dance tribute to Michael Jackson had been cancelled by AMA organisers for “reasons unknown”. During the ceremony, he won the Favorite Male R&B Artist prize and Kelly Rowland, who collected the award on his behalf, urged the audience to “chill out” after they started to boo.
Speaking to TMZ, his No Air collaborator Jordin insisted that “we love Chris” and he “should have been” at the show.
When asked if people should move on from his past mistakes, she replied, “Honestly, I think that shouldn’t even be a conversation anymore. It’s about his talent. They just shouldn’t have cancelled the performance. That’s how I feel about it.”
She added, “People deserve to be able to grow and learn and be able to live their life without things hanging over them. Everybody deserves that – him especially.”
Chris remains a controversial figure in the music industry 13 years after he assaulted his then-girlfriend Rihanna before the 2009 Grammy Awards. He has also faced a number of other allegations from women over the years.
Jordin’s comments echo a statement made by Kelly – she told TMZ earlier this week that Chris deserves grace and forgiveness.
“Before we point fingers at anybody we should realise how grateful we are, for every moment that we get, for even our own things that we have. I just think it’s important to remember to be human, we are humans,” Kelly said.
“We all need to be forgiven, for anything we could be doing, anything that we’re thinking, we all come up short in some sort of way. And grace is real and we are humans and everybody deserves grace, period.”