Rihanna has apologized after being called out for using a song that included sacred Islamic verses during the Savage X Fenty lingerie fashion show that streamed on Amazon Prime on Friday (October 2).
Models danced to the song "Doom" by artist Coucou Chloe, which included remixed audio samples of hadith narration about the end of times and judgment day. The hadith is a written record of the sayings and actions of the Prophet Mohammed and his closest companions. It is considered sacred to Muslims.
The 32-year-old songstress shared an apology on her Instagram stories.
"I'd like to thank the Muslim community for pointing out a huge oversight that was unintentionally offensive in our Savage x Fenty show,” the singer wrote. “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! I do not play with any kind of disrespect toward God or any religion and therefore the use of the song in our project was completely irresponsible!”
"Moving forward we will make sure nothing like this ever happens again. Thank you for your forgiveness and understanding," she concluded.
London-based producer Coucou Chloe also apologized for the track.
"I want to deeply apologize for the offense caused by the vocal samples used in my song 'DOOM'," the artist wrote on Twitter. "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."
“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.”
The song has since been removed from all streaming platforms.