Lil Nas X Documentary Premiere Delayed By Bomb Threat
Lil Nas X was scheduled to premiere his documentary, Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero, at the Toronto Film Festival on Saturday night. The event was delayed, however, after a bomb threat was called in allegedly targeting Lil Nas X. A source told Variety that the threat specifically targeted the rapper for being a Black, queer artist.
TIFF security conducted a sweep of the Roy Thomson Hall venue, while Nas’ arrival was delayed for about 20 minutes. After given the all clear, Nas joined co-directors Carlos López Estrada and Zac Manuel on the red carpet.
A spokesperson for TIFF told Variety: “Earlier this evening, we were made aware by the Toronto Police Service of an investigation in the vicinity of the red carpet for the Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero screening. Our standard security measures remained in place during this time and the screening commenced with a slight delay. To our knowledge, this was a general threat and not directed at the film or the artist.”
Ahead of the documentary’s premiere, Lil Nas X told Variety about his hopes for the film. “I know in my lifetime, while I’m here, I’m going to do my best to make the ceiling unreachable to where we can go as Black queer people,” he said. “And I mean unreachable as, like, it can go above and beyond.”
Nas continued: “I feel like we live in a generation where Black queer people really control culture, and they’re helping really take the world to the next level. And I think that’s going to have an effect on our youth watching us.”