Katy Perry abruptly canceled a major gig in China, saying she couldn’t perform because of a “family emergency.” Her Chinese fans aren’t buying it.
Perry was to headline a concert (also featuring OneRepublic) to help launch Singles’ Day, an online-shopping day associated with the e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Perry announced the cancellation early on Nov. 10—the day of the performance—on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media service. The thousands of reactions below the original post (most in Chinese) and a later repost make clear that many of her fans believe the real reason for the cancellation was Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump in the US election. Perry was a strong supporter of Clinton during the Democratic nominee’s campaign for the US presidency.
The reactions ranged from sympathy to anger over the unprofessionalism of the last-minute cancellation (some of the below are translations):
- “I really understand how she feels now. She has been spending her whole year for Hillary’s campaign.”
- “Oh, I’ve just learnt the news. It seems that Hillary Clinton’s loss has made Katy Perry heartbroken.”
- “I love u. Sorry for the loss of your country. We always support you.”
- “It’s OK we still love u and don’t care haters in your weibo. We are looking forward to your coming next time. China always love u. don’t be too sad and FUCK trump. love you fruit sister.”
- “This is really bad, no matter which candidate you picked, how can you just call it off the original performance? fuck off kp.”
- “This seems to be unprofessional.”
- “Hillary Clinton is your family member? I am so disappointed on your unprofessional behavior and will not listen to any of your songs in the future.”
- “It must be because her Parents voted for Trump, that’s why she is too sad to come.”
Perry changed the profile pic on her Twitter account to a black square after Clinton lost.