Lawmakers pushing to cancel Lorde's upcoming Florida shows

Lawmakers in Florida are trying to cancel Lorde's upcoming shows in the state after the Kiwi songstress called off her performance in Israel.

Lorde cancelled her Tel Aviv concert in December, following pressure from fans and activists in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which is making a stand against Israel's oppression of Palestinians.

The decision has seen Republican state Rep. Randy Fine this week pushing for Miami and Tampa to cancel Lorde's April shows, the Orlando Weekly reported.

Fine based his actions on a Florida law which barred companies that received state funds from doing business over $1 million with organisations associated with BDS.

"When Lorde joined the boycott in December, she and her companies became subject to that statute," Fine told Orlando Weekly.

"The taxpayers of Miami and Tampa should not have to facilitate bigotry and anti-Semitism, and I look forward to the Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority and the Tampa Sports Authority complying with the law and cancelling these concerts.

"Florida has no tolerance for anti-Semitism and boycotts intended to destroy the State of Israel."

Florida is one of 20 states with a law in place to deal with businesses that boycott Israel.

In a statement released in December last year Lorde said that "the right decision at this time" was to cancel her June 2018 concert in Tel Aviv.

The Grammy-award winner said that after having "lots of discussions" about the matter, she was "not too proud to admit I didn't make the right call on this one," referring to her initial decision to hold the concert.

The cancellation was welcomed by members of the BDS movement.

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel posted a statement on Twitter thanking the artist for "heeding appeals from your fans against Israel's art-washing of its brutal oppression of Palestinians."

However, some were against the cancellation including Israel's Culture Minister Miri Regev who dubbed the decision ridiculous and called on Lorde to reconsider.

Other artists to have boycotted Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians included Roger Waters, Lauryn Hill and Elvis Costello.

- Additional reporting AP