Australian musician Keli Holiday has been forced to cut his tour short after being denied entry into the United States, with the incident at the border followed by an apology from his girlfriend over an old social media post about Donald Trump.
Details of the Incident
Holiday, who performs solo and as one half of the electronic duo Peking Duk, said he was “detained” at the border while trying to travel from Canada back into the US for a concert in New York. In a social media post on Tuesday, 11 May, he wrote: “Unfortunately I’m not going to make it to tonight’s show at Baby’s All Right in NYC. I have spent all day detained at the Canadian border and denied entry back into the U.S. despite having the proper visa documentation in place. I’m still trying to get clarity on the situation myself.”
The musician had already performed in Los Angeles before travelling to Toronto for a gig on Wednesday, 6 May. He was then due to take the stage for the final night of the tour in New York City on Tuesday, 12 May. According to Billboard, a representative for Holiday confirmed he has returned to his native Australia, but declined to offer further comment when approached by The Independent.
Girlfriend’s Apology
Following Holiday’s post, his girlfriend Abbie Chatfield separately apologised for a post she had shared about the US president in July 2025. The TV star and podcast host had shared a video about Luigi Mangione, the man accused of fatally shooting United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024. Mangione was arrested after a high-profile, five-day manhunt and is expected to stand trial on 11 charges in October.
Describing her previous video as “a (very bad) joke”, Chatfield said she believed the clip “is now being exaggerated” and that words are being “put in [her] mouth”. She continued: “Regardless, I’m truly sorry for anyone this hurt, and want to make it clear this was not a serious call to action, but is poorly aimed joke at the violence of incels and commentary about the interesting reaction to Luigi Mangione in where a man accused of unaliving someone was suddenly a heart throb. There were layers to it that I should have at least explained in the caption, or the video OR ideally, I shouldn’t have posted it at all! This ‘joke’ was in extremely poor taste, but I want to make it clear that I do not think political violence is ever okay, and as I said when Charlie Kirk was assassinated, it is not good for anyone.”
Chatfield added that she deleted the post “as soon as I saw how it was being interpreted months after posting” and said her boyfriend “hadn’t even seen this video”.
Broader Context
The incident comes after the US laid out new rules for tourists, with foreign visitors asked to provide all of the social media handles they’ve used in the past five years for vetting. Comedian Dom Joly said in December last year that he had been refused entry to the States and speculated that the decision was made “because of my social media anti-Trumpisms”. “I think a lot of people I know are a bit nervous about the US at the moment, not nervous safety-wise but just nervous if they will get in,” he said during an appearance on Times Radio. “I don’t hold back on Trump or his ilk, but it is very odd.”
Elsewhere, actor Motaz Malhees – who starred in the Oscar-nominated film The Voice of Hind Rajab – said in March that he had been denied a visa to attend the Academy Awards due to his Palestinian citizenship.
