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Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has called on the AFL to drop US rapper Snoop Dogg as its headline performer for its upcoming grand final, saying it should be backing Australian talent instead of a “slur merchant”.
Snoop Dogg is the latest international star set to headline the pre-game show at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Robbie Williams, Katy Perry, Meat Loaf and Kiss are other big-name overseas acts who have performed at the AFL’s showpiece game.
But the AFL is facing growing criticism over the choice of the US rapper, considered one of the most influential of his generation, for past homophobic lyrics and others considered to promote violence against women.
Earlier this month, Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr, said he was looking forward to delivering the show on 27 September.
“100,000 fans. And the two best teams. And your boy big Snoop D-O-double G at the M-C-G,” he said in his video announcement.
“Can’t wait to see y’all in September for the Telstra pre-game entertainment brought to you by … me.”
Hanson-Young used a speech in parliament to criticise the AFL’s choice.
“Why is the AFL bringing in an international artist, a slur merchant, and paying them $2 million rather than backing Aussie talent,” she said.
“The AFL is a cultural institution, and cultural institutions like this should be backing the rest of our cultural institutions — our artists, our musicians and our music industry right here at home.”
“Yet Snoop Dogg is set to get $2 million to play his misogynistic, homophobic music on our turf,” she said.
“With over six million people tuning into the AFL grand final year on year, this is a prime time slot to platform homegrown talent. It’s time to let Aussie artists rock the ‘G’.
“I urge the AFL to have the guts to dump slur-merchant Snoop Dogg and let an Aussie artist rock the stage instead.”
Snoop Dogg is reportedly being paid $2 million to perform at the AFL grand final. Source: EPA / CAROLINE BREHMAN/EPA
‘He has changed’
The lyrics to the artist’s 1998 song: Doggz Gonna Get Ya, include: “I can’t believe that Dogg would dis me/ That fa—t that punk he soft or sissy.”
AFL CEO Andrew Dillon last week defended the decision, saying the pre-match entertainment would be a family-friendly event.
“We cannot vouch for every lyric in every song ever written or performed by any artist who has appeared on our stage — Australian or international,” Dillon said.
“It is also important to remember that we engaged Snoop Dogg in 2025 as the person he is today.
“He has changed, and today he is a grandfather, philanthropist. He helps rehabilitate youth and is a global entertainer who has performed at both the Super Bowl and the Olympic Closing Ceremony to audiences of more than 100 million people.”
In 2015, Snoop Dogg said his attitude towards women had “changed” since the earlier days of his career.
“I am more sensitive and more vulnerable writing-wise and accepting a woman for being a beautiful person, as opposed to me saying she is a b-tch or wh-re because that was how I was trained when I first started,” the rapper said in an interview with Sky News.
“As I grew, I fell in love with my wife and started to love my mother, my grandmother and my daughter. I understood what a woman was, and I started to write about and express that.”
‘Serious error of judgement’
Hanson-Young isn’t the only one who has voiced concern over the hiring of Snoop Dogg for the performance.
Violence prevention organisations, including Respect Victoria, Gender Equity Victoria, Sexual Assault Services Victoria and many more, issued a joint statement shortly after the AFL’s announcement, saying the decision to host an artist “whose lyrics promote violence” was “dangerous and ill-considered”.
“We know that many response organisations will be busy, as they always are, during the Grand Final — a time where we traditionally see an increase in rates of violence,” the statement said.
“Promoting violence through hosting an artist that has openly talked about and made money from violence against women [through his lyrics] is a serious error of judgement that we call on the AFL to fix immediately.”
In 2007, the Coalition government banned Snoop Dogg from entering Australia to present a music awards show in Sydney, saying he failed to meet character requirements for a visa after he was convicted of drug and firearm offences in the United States.
