When David Guetta faced backlash for remixing King Salman tribute at Saudi concert

In 2018, record producer and DJ, David Guetta, performed at a concert in Saudi Arabia, which was part of the Ad Diriyah Grand Prix Formula E after-race concert series. It also included shows by Enrique Iglesias and The Black Eyed Peas. However, after his gig, David Guetta was called out by netizens for remixing a number of patriotic Saudi Arabian songs. More so, a human right activist also took to Twitter to highlight the fact that he was unaware of the meaning behind the music he played. 

At his Saudi concert, he played a series of songs about the King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, popularly known as King Salman. A Bahraini Human Rights Defender, Maryam AlKhawaja tweeted, "Disgusting that @davidguetta is not only performing in #Saudi, but playing songs praising the king - while leading human rights defenders are in prison, and we have reports that the women human rights defenders have been subjected to #torture. #Shame". In another tweet, she pointed out that David was praising Salman of Saudi, while millions of people in Yemen were suffering. 

Several videos and photos from the Saudi concert surfaced on the internet. Social media seemed to be divided as many hailed David Guetta's songs, whereas, many also criticised his remixing.  

Netizens react 

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Politics aside, it is hard to deny that there are real changes happening on the ground in Saudi Arabia-A mixed gender crowd jams to international DJ David Guetta in Riyadh tonight #FormulaE pic.twitter.com/roTKE9K8ot

— Michelle Cioffoletti (@michellecioff)

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In 2019, in an interview with The National, David Guetta commented on his Saudi concert. He said that he was really proud that he did it. He further remarked that there was a very big effort to open to music and to artists in Saudi. As an artist, he played for the people and the people were obviously so happy, he said.

David continued that it was incredible and to see men and women dancing and letting go of everything and that it felt like he was part of history. David mentioned that it was a great honour for him to be a part of the concert. He was in Dubai for a rest before his concert for more than 50,000 people in Morocco’s Mawazine Festival.

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