TAylor Swift spoke out for the first time on Wednesday about the cancellation of three of her Eras tour shows in Vienna, Austria, earlier this month following a foiled terrorist attack, calling it “devastating.”
In a statement on social media, the 34-year-old TIME Person of the Year said: “The reason for the cancellations filled me with new feelings of anxiety and enormous guilt because so many people had planned to come to these shows.”
The singer celebrated the passionate audience and dedicated artists of the European leg of her Eras tour, which just ended after performances in London, and she expressed her gratitude to the authorities who uncovered the Vienna plot, “because thanks to them we mourned concerts and not live performances.”
Swift also explained why she waited until now to speak out: “I have decided that I need to focus all of my energy on protecting the nearly half a million people who come to my shows in London,” she said. “I will not speak publicly about something if I believe it will provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows. In cases like this, ‘silence’ actually shows restraint and waits to speak out when it is right. My priority was to finish our European tour safely and I am very relieved to say we have achieved that.”
Three teenagers have been arrested in connection with an alleged planned attack on the August 8-10 concert at the Ernst Happel Stadium. Investigators have found that two of the suspects were radicalized online. A lawyer for one of the main suspects said the teenager’s alleged plans were “fantasies” that he could not put into action.
Swift’s record-breaking tour continues in October when she performs again in the US and then in Canada.
