Excercising Parental Control

My daughter wants to attend her first concert next week with a group of friends at the House of Blues. While I don't begrudge her first concert experiences, the person she wants to go see is Akon.

I bristled. Not because his music is rap/hip-hop, but because of the news footage I saw a few weeks ago regarding a concert he held in Trinidad and what he did to a concert-goer on stage. I am linking to Michelle Malkin's recap of several news articles regarding the event, and her link to the YouTube video that was floating around (but is no longer available). It was disturbing, even seeing on the news when it was "edited."

And now that I have googled his lyrics, it pretty much sealed my emphatic "No."

"But mom, all my friends are going!"
"I'm the only one not allowed to go!"
"You don't care about me!"
"I can't believe you won't let me go!"

You know what? Her anger toward me right now is justified in her 13 year-old mind, I understand it. I used his "actions" in Trinidad as my most heavily-relied upon reason as to why not, and her response was, "But MOM!! We won't even be that close to the stage!" insinuating it wouldn't happen to her...no matter that her eyes would be on the stage if it were to happen to someone else! and having her hear the lyrics of his songs, that are all "Parental Advisory" stickered? I should think not.

I love her naivety and am glad she is still a kid in some respects. I want to plan something fun for us to do on the 25th that will ease her pain of not being included with her friends when the "much more strict parents of so-and-so are allowing HER TO GO!"

Ideas welcomed :)