Two weeks after organizers scrubbed Taylor Swift’s live shows in Vienna amid a foiled terror plot, the singer issued her first assertion on the cancellations.
“Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating,” she wrote in an announcement posted to Instagram on Wednesday. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”
She thanked authorities — “thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives,” she wrote — and stated she waited to talk till the European leg of her Eras Tour concluded to prioritize security.
“Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” she wrote.
In the wake of the cancellations, Swift’s representatives didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark from The Associated Press and different news organizations and her social media pages had gone dormant.
“In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint, and waiting to express yourself at a time when it’s right to. My priority was finishing our European tour safely, and it’s with great relief that I can say we did that,” she added.
Concert organizer Barracuda Music had stated it canceled the three-night Vienna run that will have begun Aug. 8 as a result of the arrests made in connection to the conspiracy have been too near showtime. Authorities stated a 19-year-old suspect had deliberate to focus on spectators exterior the Ernst Happel Stadium with knives or selfmade explosives, hoping to “kill as many people as possible.” Austrian officers stated they appeared to have been impressed by the Islamic State group and al-Qaida.
That suspect and one other 17-year-old have been taken into custody on Aug. 6, the day earlier than the reveals have been introduced as canceled. A 3rd suspect, 18, was arrested Aug. 8. The 19-year-old’s lawyer has stated the allegations have been “overacting at its best,” and contended Austrian authorities have been “presenting this exaggeratedly” so as to get new surveillance powers.
Tens of 1000’s of Swifties from all over the world had traveled to Vienna for the reveals.
Swift’s Instagram submit additionally commemorated the top of the European leg with a tribute to her 5 nights at London’s Wembley Stadium, which she stated factored into her choice to attend to talk out and finally “felt like a beautiful dream sequence.”
“I decided that all of my energy had to go toward helping to protect the nearly half a million people I had coming to see the shows in London,” she wrote the day after her final Wembley live performance. “My team and I worked hand in hand with stadium staff and British authorities every day in pursuit of that goal.”
The reveals in London, the following cease scheduled after Vienna, additionally got here on the heels of a stabbing at a Swift-themed dance class that left three little ladies lifeless within the UK. In an announcement issued after the Southport assault, Swift stated she was “just completely in shock” and “at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.” News shops reported that Swift met with a number of the survivors backstage in London.
The record-smashing tour is on hiatus till October, when it resumes in Miami.
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