The Welsh Rugby Union recently banned the Tom Jones song ‘Delilah’ from being performed in their stadium, and the iconic singer has now spoken out against the censorship of one of his signature tunes.
The murder ballad is known for macabre lyrics about a man who kills his lover after discovering she was flirting with another man. Despite the song’s lyrics, Jones was in favour of keeping the song in his setlist, saying at a gig at Cardiff Castle (via BBC), “You can’t stop us singing Delilah. Can you imagine… Who was the man who didn’t want us to sing Delilah?”.
Since the ban, The Principality Stadium has issued a statement regarding removing the tune, explaining, “‘Delilah’ will not feature on the playlist for choirs for rugby internationals at Principality Stadium. The WRU condemns domestic violence of any kind”.
Despite Jones’s feelings, other musicians have spoken in favour of the ban, with Nick Cave going on to say, “It’s a terrible song, on any level, as far as I’m concerned, even though it won the Ivor Novello award twice”.
Jones also encouraged the rest of the crowd to sing along during the show at Cardiff Castle, remarking, “He stopped the choir from singing it, but he didn’t stop the crowd from singing it, and we will keep singing it too”.
This follows Jones’s previous comments about the song, where he discussed how proud he was when performing it live, stating, “I love to hear it sung at rugby games. It makes me very proud to be Welsh”.
As of yet, there has been no word on whether The Principality Stadium will respond to Jones’s comments.
