Singer Janet Jackson’s latest album will remain on the banned list in Singapore unless an offending track containing explicit lyrics is removed.
“The distributor can release the album ‘All for You’ by removing the objectionable track ‘Would You Mind’,” a spokeswoman for the Films and Publications Department said.
Local distributor EMI Singapore voluntarily submitted “All for You” for vetting and launched an appeal in April after authorities decided the album could not be sold. Information and Arts Minister Lee Yock Suan then upheld the ban.
EMI is still trying to get the green light from Jackson’s management company to delete the offending track so the album can be released, the Straits Times newspaper reported on Tuesday.
EMI was not immediately available for comment.
The Publications Appeal Committee deemed the song “not acceptable to our society” – but that didn’t stop the paper from telling readers it includes the lyrics “I just wanna touch you, tease you, lick you, please you, love you, make love to you.”
The album was briefly available in some stores before being yanked from shelves or tucked under the counter.
Jackson’s multi-million selling album “The Velvet Rope,” released in 1997, was also banned in Singapore for references to domestic abuse and homosexuality.
It was later released with the offending tracks removed.
Of more than 300,000 music titles brought into Singapore every year, importers voluntarily flag about six percent to the censors. About 20 titles are banned per year.
The 34-year-old singer’s latest album, which comes after her second divorce and a four-year recording hiatus, is a tribute to sex and the single woman.
“All for You,” launched as a single in March, spent several weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.