Iconic singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has played his first concert in communist-ruled Vietnam.
The 69-year-old American artist, who is known by many music fans for his antiwar anthems, performed on April 10 in Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, nearly 36 years after U.S. troops left Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War.
Dylan sang classics including "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and "Highway 61 Revisited." However, as was the case in the Chinese capital Beijing, where Dylan played last week, in Vietnam he did not perform two well-known songs that could be seen as having political overtones -- "The Times They Are a-Changin'" and "Blowin' in the Wind."
Citing the omissions of these songs, the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch group has accused Dylan of allegedly letting the Chinese and Vietnamese governments "tell him what to sing."
The group said that instead of communicating a message of freedom and hope, Dylan had allowed "censors to choose his playlist."
compiled from agency reports