Taylor Swift Expresses Fear, Guilt When She Canceled Vienna Shows

Taylor Swift poses on the red carpet as she attends the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, February 4, 2024. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Taylor Swift poses on the red carpet as she attends the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, February 4, 2024. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Taylor Swift Expresses Fear, Guilt When She Canceled Vienna Shows

Taylor Swift poses on the red carpet as she attends the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, February 4, 2024. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Taylor Swift poses on the red carpet as she attends the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, February 4, 2024. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

US pop megastar Taylor Swift revealed on Wednesday that a "new sense of fear" came over her after authorities uncovered a plot to attack her Vienna concert venue as well as guilt for letting down fans by canceling her three shows in the city.

The singer also applauded authorities for foiling the plan to cause mass harm at Ernst Happel Stadium, the venue where she was scheduled to play.

"Thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives," Swift said on Instagram in her first public comments since news of planned attack surfaced two weeks ago, Reuters reported.

Police in Austria arrested a 19-year-old man who they said confessed to wanting to cause a "bloodbath" at Swift's Eras Tour shows.

"Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating," Swift 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."

Swift said she decided "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."

The London dates took place without incident and concluded on Tuesday, ending the European leg of the record-breaking Eras Tour.

The singer said she had not commented earlier because she did not want to risk provoking harm at future concerts.

"Let me be very clear: 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," Swift wrote. "In cases like this one, 'silence' is actually showing restraint."

The Eras Tour, the highest-grossing concert tour in history, is now on a scheduled break. It will resume with final dates from October through December in the United States and Canada.



Japanese Woman, 116, to be Named World's Oldest Person

FILE PHOTO: A tourist takes a picture of Mount Fuji appearing over a convenience store in Fujikawaguchiko town, Yamanashi prefecture, Japan, May 21, 2024. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A tourist takes a picture of Mount Fuji appearing over a convenience store in Fujikawaguchiko town, Yamanashi prefecture, Japan, May 21, 2024. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo
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Japanese Woman, 116, to be Named World's Oldest Person

FILE PHOTO: A tourist takes a picture of Mount Fuji appearing over a convenience store in Fujikawaguchiko town, Yamanashi prefecture, Japan, May 21, 2024. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A tourist takes a picture of Mount Fuji appearing over a convenience store in Fujikawaguchiko town, Yamanashi prefecture, Japan, May 21, 2024. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

A 116-year-old Japanese woman who used to be a mountaineer is set to be named the world's oldest person by Guinness World Records, a research group said on Wednesday, following the death of a 117-year-old Spanish woman earlier this week.
Tomiko Itooka, who was born on May 23, 1908, lives in the western Japanese city of Ashiya, the US-based Gerontology Research Group said, according to Reuters.
She is next in line for the title of world's oldest person after Maria Branyas Morera died in a Spanish nursing home on Monday, according to the group.
Itooka, a mother-of-three, was born in the year when a long-distance radio message was sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time, and when the Wright Brothers made their first public flights in Europe and America.
In her 70s, Itooka often went climbing and twice scaled Japan's 3,067-meter (10,062-ft) Mount Ontake - surprising her guide by climbing the mountain in sneakers instead of hiking boots, the research group said.
At the age of 100, she walked up the lengthy stone steps of Japan's Ashiya Shrine without using a cane, the group added.