Rihanna Cancels Jakarta Show Afraid for Her Own Safety

 

Young R&B singer Rihanna cancelled a concert she was scheduled to perform in Jakarta on Friday and which had sold out due to fears over her own safety, organizers of the event said.

Rihanna is currently on her Good Girl Gone Bad Tour and the gig scheduled for Jakarta, Indonesia was already promising, as all 6,000 tickets had been sold. The last-minute cancellation was due to fears that she could endanger herself.

Dive Poernomo, a spokeswoman for Showmaster Live, the event organizer, said Rihanna changed her mind while still in neighboring Australia, when the country reissued a travel warning which urged its citizens to reconsider plans to visit Indonesia after the weekend executions of three Islamic militants convicted in the 2002 Bali bombings.

The three had been involved in nightclub bombings which killed some 200 persons in 2002. There was a threat of attacks after their executions. There have been no major bomb attacks in Indonesia since 2005 but the country is still considered at risk.

Poernomo said the event organizer hoped to hold another concert in January.

Rihanna, whose “Umbrella” single has probably been seared into the circumvolutions of most of the planet’s population since its release last year, is currently in the midst of a world tour in support of her “Good Girl Gone Bad” album.

The tour kicked off in September in Vancouver, Canada and either has taken or will take Rihanna across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.   

“Umbrella” won a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 50th annual Grammy Awards and was also nominated in the Record of the Year and Song of the Year categories. It features rap mogul Jay-Z.

Rihanna’s album has sold more than 6 million copies worldwide. Her supporting acts so far on the tour have been Akon, Ciara, David Jordan and Chris Brown.