Rihanna has responded to recent controversy surrounding one of the songs she played during her “Savage X Fenty” fashion show.
Rihanna is typically a beacon of inclusivity, a leader in the body positivity space with her all-inclusive lingerie line, which casts and showcases models of all sizes, as well as her make-up line, which includes 40 different shades. However, off the heels of an extremely well-received Amazon Prime exclusive Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 2, the singer was met with criticism by a number of her Muslim fans.
The fans pointed to a song from London producer Coucou Chloe, titled “Doom,” which was played during the runway portion of the show, and incorporated a hadith. In Islamic faith, a hadith is a sacred bit of text that details the sayings of Prophet Muhammad, and thus Muslims took to twitter to express their disdain with Rihanna’s oblivious or else pointed inclusion of a hadith in her show.
The uproar was enough to catch RiRi’s attention, though, as she’s quickly taken to her Instagram Story to issue an apology. In her apology, Rihanna explains that the inclusion of the song was simply a careless oversight, but nonetheless promises to do better moving forward.
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Rihanna writes:
“I’d like to thank the Muslim community for pointing out a huge oversight that was unintentionally offensive in our savage x fenty show. I would more importantly like to apologize to you for this honest, yet careless mistake. We understand that we have hurt many of our Muslim brothers and sisters, and i’m incredibly disheartened by this! I do not play with any kind of disrespect toward God or any religion and therefore the use of the song in our project was completely irresponsible! Moving forward we will make sure nothing like this ever happens again. Thank you for your forgiveness and understanding,
Rih.”
View her message via screenshot below. If you missed it, check out some of the highlights from the Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 2 here.
Screenshot via Rihanna’s IG Story