The Saturday night premiere of the documentary “Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero” at the Toronto International Film Festival was delayed after a bomb threat was called in targeting the artist, multiple sources close to the artist confirmed to The Times.
The news was first reported by Variety, which said that the threat specifically targeted the “Old Town Road” rapper for being a Black queer artist.
The screening at TIFF’s Roy Thomson Hall, home to the festival’s gala events, was delayed by some 20 minutes as authorities determined the threat was not credible. Lil Nas X was held from arriving on the red carpet before he eventually joined directors Carlos López Estrada and Zac Manuel and entered the building, at which point the screening proceeded as planned. A source who was inside the venue told The Times that attendees were not informed about the threat.
In reviewing Lil Nas X’s debut full-length album, “Montero,” Times pop music critic Mikael Wood wrote, “He’s framed the steps in his unlikely journey — as a Black kid trying to break into country music, as a gay man making hip-hop — in richly emotional terms, which means his audience shares in his triumphs while his detractors come off like scolds. And scolds he’s definitely got: Making himself a queer Black sex object was a radical act.”
