Taylor Swift Speaks Out for the First Time About the Threat to Her Vienna Concerts
The artist waited until her European tour ended to speak out, to avoid risking her followers’ safety
Just two weeks ago, Taylor Swift had to cancel her three concerts in Vienna, Austria, because of a terrorist threat aimed at her shows. Even though she stopped her The Eras Tour there, she continued with the rest of her European dates. However, she faced some criticism for not speaking out sooner.
Her tour in Europe has now wrapped up with five concerts in London, and she won’t be performing again until October, taking a well-deserved break. This break has allowed her and her team to address what happened earlier this August.
“Walking onstage in London was a rollercoaster of emotions. Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating. 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. But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives,” Taylor Swift said on Instagram about the attempted attack.
The Decision to Cancel Her Vienna Shows
Also, to stay quiet about it until The Eras Tour was over was intentional, meant to protect the nearly half a million people who attended the London concerts right after the incident in Austria. Swift has firmly addressed the criticism she faced for being cautious. Taylor Swift explained, addressing the attempted attacks:
“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. 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 is with great relief that I can say we did that.”
The Investigation into the Attempted Attack
In early August, Austrian security forces revealed that they had detected and stopped a planned terrorist attack on one of Taylor Swift’s concerts in Vienna, part of her popular The Eras Tour.