Fans beg Justin Bieber to cancel dates as fear grips pop’s youth

Justin Bieber, 23, is due to play an open air concert at London’s Hyde Park in July. (REUTERS)

FANS of Justin Bieber pleaded on Tuesday for his upcoming British tour dates to be canceled, underscoring the potential repercussions to music acts with a young fan base from the suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.

Canadian heartthrob Bieber, 23, is due to play an open air concert at London’s Hyde Park in July. But fans flooded social media saying his appearance should be axed for the safety both of fans and the singer himself. “Cancel Justin’s concert in the UK, please! We want him to be safe, please,” a person using the handle marhrukhh wrote on the Instagram account of Bieber’s manager, Scooter Braun.

Braun also manages Grande, also 23, a former Nickelodeon star whose huge female fan base, many of them tweens, were ou tin force for her concert in Manchester on Monday night when a suicide bombing killed 22 people and injured dozens.

The “Problem” singer flew to Florida on Tuesday to spend time with her family, the Daily Mail website reported. Representatives at Grande’s record company did not return calls on whether the remainder of her world tour, with stops in London and Europe, would go ahead.

Leanne Murray, 20, who lives in Ireland, has tickets to see Bieber play in Dublin next month. But she said that after Monday’s bombing she is contemplating selling them. “I just don’t want what I would hope to be a great night to end in something like last night,” Murray, who paid US$200 each for two tickets told Reuters. “It’s frightening to think that it could have been any of us and it really shows that you never know what’s around the corner,” Murray added.

Representatives for Bieber did not immediately respond to Reuters on the status of his upcoming performances.

Touring has been one of the top sources of income for musicians in recent years. The top 10 worldwide tour act sgrossed a combined US$1.67 billion in 2016, according to music industry publication Pollstar, with Bruce Springsteen bringing in US$268.3 million alone.

Pop acts like Taylor Swift, Bieber, One Direction and Grande are also among the top earners.

Grande grossed more than US$25 million from touring between April 2016-April 2017, according to Pollstar figures, while Bieber grossed US$163 million in 2016. – www.sabc.co.za