Justin Bieber performs in Saudi Arabia despite public calls for cancellation

The appeals from human rights advocates are not enough to receive Justin Bieber to get out of a gig in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

Beiber took to the stage at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit for a performance connected to the Formula One Grand Prix held there over the weekend.

He performed despite pleas from people around the globe, who saw the show as something that could help restore the reputation of the Middle Eastern nation’s monarchy, battered by a series of public scandals in recent years.

The public appeal to Bieber included an open letter from journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s widow Hatice Cengiz. Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was murdered by the country’s intelligence agents after entering their consulate in Turkey in 2018 and never again. out of the building.

“Do not sing for those who killed my beloved Jamal,” Cengiz Written inside Washington Post last month. “Please speak up and condemn his killer, Mohammed bin Salman. Millions of people will listen to your voice. This year, you released an album called ‘Justice’. You also released a name called ‘Freedom’. Saudi Arabia desperately needs both.”

Bieber, however, continued the show while his wife Hailey Bieber watched, taking her away Instagram account to shoot a short video of her husband performing, with the caption, “Go baby.”

“It would be catastrophic for Justin Bieber, an artist with a huge following around the globe and idolized by millions, to be used as a pawn by MBS’s murderous regime,” said Human Rights Foundation President. rights Céline Assaf-Boustani said in a statement last month, as reported on Sunday by Daily mail.

Assaf-Boustain added: “This performance is in stark contrast to the core values ​​he claims to subscribe to. “Music is not only a business, but an influential art form that cannot be bought by a brutal dictatorship.”