It had to be him.
Apparently fearful of the revolutionary potential of Harry Connick Jr.'s song stylings, Chinese censors, still reeling from the recent Björking, brought down the hammer on the New Orleans songman.
Connick said in a statement Thursday that thanks to some heavy-handed tinkering to his set list by the powers that be, "I was not able to give my fans in China the show I intended."
He had planned on doing a full big-band performance at the Shanghai International Gymnastics Center on Sunday. Instead, the 40-year-old ivory-tickler was forced to substitute several songs that normally feature solos by his sidemen with slower piano ballads.
The Grammy winner said the changes were necessary after an old set list was accidentally presented to officials at China's Ministry of Culture when his camp initially applied for permits to play in the country. That list contained songs that were deemed off limits in China.
Connick & Co. were unable to get approval for a revised batch of songs. That meant his bandmembers often remained quiet during the gig, because they didn't have the requisite charts for the oldies Chinese censors said he could play.
J.Q. Whitcomb, an expat jazz musician and writer living in China, reviewed the show on his Shanghai Jazz Scene blog and duly pointed out that "the role that the rest of the band played was way too small."
"We fell asleep at the beginning of the show, with all the solo piano and mellow vocals happening," Whitcomb wrote. "But then it dawned on us what the Ministry of Culture said in response to Björk's political outburst at her concert the week before.
"Sure enough, players in Connick's band told us that the government people showed up an hour before they were to play and went to town on their set list, crossing off a number of tunes they disapproved of...and replacing them with 'safer' tunes. Tunes, of course, which the band did not happen to have charts on hand for."
No word if he encountered the same problem at a stop in Beijing two days later.
The trouble with Harry really stems from March 2 Björk show, in which she shouted pro-Tibet slogans.
The Culture Ministry denounced the Icelandic singer for supposedly turning a "commercial show into a political performance, which not only broke Chinese law but hurt the Chinese audience's feelings." Officials then announced plans to place tighter controls on all future appearances by foreign-born performers.
Connick kicked off his tour of Asia and Australia March 3 in Kuala Lumpur. He then played a date in Singapore before heading to China. He's due to hit Seoul, Manila, Bangkok and Hong Kong before heading Down Under for a weeklong series of gigs culminating with a March 30 show in Perth.
When he gets back to the States, Connick will return to the boards, reuniting with his Pajama Game director Kathleen Marshall (daughter of Pretty Woman helmer Garry) to headline a revival of the 1926 Gershwin musical Oh, Kay! Curtains will likely go up either this fall or in early 2009.