Linda Ronstadt and the South Africa Boycott
Linda Ronstadt is special, and yet she went to South Africa. She is special, and yet she chose to perform in a reviled racist country. She is special, and yet she gave six concerts in the cradle of apartheid. She is special, and yet she lent her talents to an especially mean place. She is special, and yet she allowed her very specialness to be exploited by an outlaw nation in search of legitimacy. Her special price: $500,000.
All the time I was in South Africa, I kept wrestling with my image of Linda Ronstadt, the special rock star. And all the time she was there, she wrestled with her conscience.
- ‘Linda Ronstadt: Snow White in South Africa,’ Rolling Stone (1983).
This is one of those indepth ‘on the road with a rock star’ pieces that Rolling Stone has always been so good at. Here, Ronstadt is performing in South Africa and thereby going against the cultural boycott put in place to force the end to apartheid. Ronstadt got a lot of shit for this tour. It’s really interesting in this article seeing her and the writer’s frank back and forth on the ethics of performing there and the power of pop culture, through boycott, to change the developing world.
Also, I can’t help it, Linda Ronstadt as Snow White brings this to mind.
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