Taylor Swift | Photo credit: Kate Green
Two weeks after organizers canceled Taylor Swift’s concert in Vienna due to a failed terrorist plot, the singer has released her first statement on the cancellation.
“Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating,” he wrote in a statement posted on Instagram. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear and a lot of guilt because so many people had planned to come to those shows.” He thanked authorities — “Thanks to them, we were mourning for concerts, not lives,” he wrote — and said he waited to speak out until after the European leg of his Eras Tour ended in order to prioritise safety.
Following the concert cancellation, Swift’s representatives did not respond to multiple requests for comment from news organizations, and her social media pages also went deactivated.
He added, “In cases like these, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint, and waiting to express yourself at the right time. My priority was to complete our European tour safely, and I am very relieved to say that we did that.”
Concert organiser Barracuda Music had said it had cancelled a three-night Vienna event scheduled to begin on August 8 because arrests in connection with the plot were made too close to the show times. Authorities said the 19-year-old suspects had planned to target spectators outside the Ernst Happel stadium with knives or homemade explosives in order to “kill as many people as possible.” Austrian authorities said they appeared to be inspired by the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda.
That suspect and another 17-year-old were detained on Aug. 6, the day before the show’s cancellation was announced. The third suspect, an 18-year-old, was arrested on Aug. 8. The 19-year-old’s lawyer has said the allegations were “grossly exaggerated,” and argued Austrian authorities were “brewing it up” to obtain new surveillance powers.
Thousands of Swifties from all over the world came to Vienna for the show.
Swift’s Instagram post also commemorated the end of the European leg by paying tribute to the five nights spent at London’s Wembley Stadium, which she said played a factor in her decision to wait to speak out and that ultimately “it felt like a beautiful dreamscape.”
“I decided that all my energy should be focused on protecting the nearly half a million people who came to see the show in London,” he wrote the day after his final Wembley concert. “My team and I worked closely with stadium staff and the British authorities every day to achieve that goal.”
The shows, which will be in London – the next stop after Vienna – come on the heels of a stabbing attack at a Swift-themed dance class that left three young girls dead in the U.K. In a statement released after the Southport attack, Swift said she was “in utter shock” and “at a loss for words” and “completely at a loss to express my condolences to these families.”
News outlets reported that Swift met with some of the remaining fans backstage in London. The record-breaking tour is on hold until October, then will resume in Miami.
