Taylor Swift commented on Wednesday for the first time on the cancellation of three of her Eras Tour shows in Vienna, Austria, earlier this month after a foiled terrorist attack, calling it “devastating.”
In a statement posted on social media, the 34-year-old TIME Person of the Year said: “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.”
The singer celebrated the passionate crowds and dedicated performers of the European leg of her Eras Tour, which just ended after shows in London, and she expressed gratitude to the authorities who uncovered the Vienna plot “because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives.”
Swift also explained why she waited to speak out until now: “I decided that all of my energy had to go toward helping to protect the nearly half a million people I had coming to see the shows in London,” she said. “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.”
Three teenagers have been detained in relation to an alleged planned attack at the concert that was scheduled for Aug. 8–10 at Ernst Happel Stadium. Investigators have said they found that two of the suspects had been radicalized online. A lawyer for one of the main suspects said that the teenager’s alleged plans were “fantasies” that he had no capacity to carry out.
Swift’s record-breaking tour resumes in October, when she returns to performing in the U.S. and then Canada.
