Rihanna has apologized to her Muslim fans after her use of the song “Doom” during her recent Savage x Fenty fashion show drew criticism. The song, initially released in 2017 by London producer Coucou Chloe, includes sacred Islamic verses.
“I’d like to thank the Muslim community for pointing out a huge oversight that was unintentionally offensive in our savage x fenty show,” Rihanna wrote on her Instagram Story on Tuesday (Oct. 6).
“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!” she continued, adding that it was never her intention to disrespect the religion by using the song.
“I do not play with any kind of disrespect toward God or any religion and therefore the use of this song in our project was completely irresponsible! Moving forward we will make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”
The song’s producer Coucou Chloe also issued an apology for the track on Twitter, writing, “I want to deeply apologize for the offence caused by the vocal samples used in my song ‘DOOM’. The song was created using samples from Baile Funk tracks I found online. At the time, I was not aware that these samples used text from an Islamic Hadith.”
Chloe further said she would have the song “urgently” taken off streaming platforms. “Doom” will also be removed from Amazon’s Savage x Fenty Volume 2 playlist.
Addressing one person on Instagram directly, Rihanna further apologized for upsetting her fans.
“It’s been brought to our attention and we’re taking it out! I obviously had no clue!” she wrote. “I just hope people don’t think I did this on purpose or to be offensive or anything like that! Cause you know I would NEVER!! So I’m editing it out, but of course you can’t take it back ya know?? I just feel bad that I hurt people, even though that was never my intention, the Muslim community is hurt by me right now, so that’s the sad part!”
Rihanna’s latest Savage x Fenty show, which was largely praised for its diversity, aired on Amazon Prime this past Friday (Oct. 2). See her apologies below.