Rihanna Apologizes for Using Song That Includes Sacred Islamic Verses During Fashion Show: ‘Irresponsible’

Rihanna is apologizing to fans after she received backlash for using a song in her Fenty x Savage Vol. 2 fashion show that included 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,” RiRi wrote on Tuesday, October 6, via her Instagram Story. “I would more importantly like to apologize to you for this honest, yet careless mistake. We understand that we 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 this song in our project was completely irresponsible.”

She added, “Moving forward, we will make sure nothing like this ever happens again. Thank you for your forgiveness and understanding, Rih.”

Lingerie models danced to the song “Doom” by London-based producer Coucou Chloe during a part of Rihanna’s show, which streamed on Amazon Prime on Friday, October 2. The song, released in 2017, includes a remix of a hadith narration about the end of times and judgment day.

According to CNN, the hadith is “a written record of the sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad and his closest companions.” It “is considered extremely sacred to Muslims and come secondary only to the Quran in terms of textual authority.”

Chloe also posted an apology via Twitter on Monday, October 5. “I want to deeply apologize for the offense caused by the vocal samples used in my song ‘DOOM,'” she began. “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,” she wrote. “I take full responsibility for the fact I did not research these words properly and want to thank those of you who have taken the time to explain this to me. We have been in the process of having the song urgently removed from all streaming platforms.”