Ella Langley returned to the stage in Lubbock, Texas, Saturday night (Oct. 10) after canceling Friday’s concert in Tulsa, Okla., due to a security threat that had been called in ahead of the event.
Though local law enforcement swept Tulsa’s BOK Center and its surroundings and determined the threat was not credible on Friday, the show was still called off. Langley explained why that decision was made on Saturday in Lubbock.
“When it comes to keeping you safe, and making sure that this show is a safe place for us to come and enjoy our music, it will happen. But the second it feels like it’s not, I’m not doing it. I’m not doing it because a concert’s not worth a human life. It’s not,” Langley said, as seen in a fan-filmed video clip from Saturday’s show at United Supermarkets Arena.
“I would’ve made yesterday’s decision 10 billion times over. I would have,” she added.
The “Choosin’ Texas” hitmaker — her single holds the record for the most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — continued to address the situation for a couple more minutes before launching into her song “Loving Life Again.”
Langley told the crowd, “While I’m grateful to get to do what I do, it’s not the most important thing in this life. The most important thing in this life is the people around you that love you, and that are there for you no matter what. The most important thing in this life is making sure you wake up every day and feel like, you know what, I’m good today. I’m so grateful to have woken up today.”
She then turned to her faith, saying, “The most important thing in this life, number one, is your relationship with Jesus Christ.”
“If it wasn’t for Him, I would’ve canceled this show tonight,” said Langley, who’s currently on her Dandelion Tour, in support of her album of the same name. “I would have. But I felt this calling and this tug at my chest that says, ‘It’s OK. We are safe and we can do this show.’ I decided to [perform tonight] because of Him right there.”
She went on, “Every time I see ‘do not fear’ in the Bible, I underline it. Every single time. I’m not going to live in fear. We are going to put on music and get to do this for the rest of our lives, and I know that. I know that because this is my calling. This is the thing that I was called to do and I’m gonna continue doing it. Nobody is gonna talk me out of it or scare me out of it. No, you will not.”
“Thank you so much for showing up tonight,” Langley said to the audience. “I know yesterday was scary. It was scary for all of us. But we’re just so grateful to be playing this show tonight. We’re so grateful and we will never take this for granted.”
Langley’s Friday tour date in Tulsa was called off just a few hours before showtime. The announcement came via a statement from Langley’s team and the venue that read, in part, “Due to a serious security threat involving the safety of my fans, venue personnel, and the artist, Ella Langley’s scheduled performance tonight at BOK Center in Tulsa has been canceled. The safety and well-being of everyone involved is our absolute priority, and, after careful consideration, we have determined that the show cannot proceed.”
The Tulsa Police Department released a statement Friday saying they’d swept the building and surrounding area and “found no credible threat to the event’s safety.”
In a video message posted online, Captain Richard Meulenberg communicated that there had been a threatening call received, with the caller saying someone was going to bring “great harm to the people at this event in the way of shots fired and bombs, so we came out again in an overabundance of caution … The person who called this in with a phone call disrupted this event for all these folks.”
