(Dubai) Singer Justin Bieber has found himself in the midst of a controversy after deciding to attend a concert in Saudi Arabia, with activists calling on the Canadian pop star to cancel his visit due to the kingdom’s human rights violations. human rights.
Justin Bieber, 27, is due to sing Sunday in front of thousands of people in Jeddah on the sidelines of the first Saudi Formula 1 Grand Prix, alongside French DJ David Guetta and American singer Jason Derulo.
A priori lucrative, the decision of the successful performer Love yourself participating in the concert, however, aroused the ire of human rights groups.
While Saudi Arabia seeks to soften its image as an ultra-conservative kingdom, the arrests of opponents, the rejection of the LGBTQ + community and the large number of executions in the country are regularly singled out by international organizations.
Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi assassinated in 2018 at his country’s consulate in Istanbul, has led the movement calling on Justin Bieber to cancel his visit.
“This is a unique opportunity to send a strong message to the world that your name and your talent will not be used to restore the image of a regime that kills its opponents,” she wrote in a column published in the Washington post.
On social media, the hashtag #WTFJustin was widely shared as a plane sported a “Why is Bieber singing for Saudi assassins?” Last month flew over the Los Angeles sky at the American Music Awards.
The Canadian singer has refrained from any comment.
“You can get the impression that it’s just Justin Bieber singing in front of an audience. But in reality, what’s going on this weekend in Saudi Arabia is a complex subject, including who sings there and who drives there ”at the Grand Prix, said Professor Simon Chadwick, a sports industry expert for the ‘EM Lyon Business School.
Like other countries, the kingdom wants to make sport a lever of influence to improve its image internationally. But, according to Mr Chadwick, authorities dismiss accusations of ” sportwashing », Preferring to present their interest in sport as a means of diversifying an economy dependent on oil.
The kingdom uses its wealth linked to the exploitation of hydrocarbons to attract major sporting events and celebrities, also notes James Dorsey, a specialist in the Middle East at the University of Singapore.
The Saudi authorities “are going to offer enough money so that this kind of thing (Grand Prix, concerts) is impossible to refuse”, he believes.
But for the president of the Saudi Automobile Federation, Prince Khalid ben Sultan al-Faisal, “it is not a singer who will (smooth) the image of the kingdom, but rather its leaders and its people. “
On the side of power as human rights defenders, “many instrumentalize Justin Bieber and make him something he is not,” says Mr. Chadwick.
The singer “will on the one hand be severely judged by the liberals for having come to Saudi Arabia”. But “if he had not come, some in the Gulf or elsewhere would have seen him as an opponent of what is happening in these countries. “