Justin Bieber has some 'splainin' to do. At least that's what the radio and fans of the "random country" of Indonesia thinks. They've banned the teen idol and his music because of disrespectful comments he made about Indonesia in a British T.V. interview.
It all started when the Teen Dream went to London to promote his new album, Believe. According to sources, JB "insulted Indonesia and threw a hissy fit." Actually Justin said that one of his new tracks "Be Alright" was recorded in a random country, and that the people who worked in the studio where he recorded the song "didn't know what they were doing." Ouch. Needless to say, Indonesians—even Indonesian Beliebers—were not amused. Indonesian radio Kiss 105 FM immediately banned JB's songs. Kiss FM's executive producer, Anggi Simanjuntak complained about Biebs' remarks in an interview with the Jakarta Post:
"His tone was very condescending and he is just a 19-year-old boy," Simanjuntak said. "This is a country with more than 200 million citizens."
According to Anggi, JB's Indonesian fans support the ban. Many Beliebers reportedly unfollowed their idol on Twitter, and some of them "even blocked Bieber's Twitter account from their timelines." However, a Kiss announcer later intimated that all would be forgiven if the "Boyfriend" singer "apologized in a sweet manner and promised not to say such things about Indonesia again." If he does that, the ban will probably be lifted.
So will Justin Bieber apologize? Only he knows for sure. However, a recent fan site poll showed that a 48.74 percent majority of Beliebers think he should. Only 35.19 percent thought he should stand his ground. 16.09 percent weren't sure.
So, there you have it. Will Justin apologize for his thoughtless comments? Or will he forever be persona non grata in Indonesia?
Stay tuned.
© Hope Carson 2012
Hope Carson is the author of 2 books: A Roaring Girl: An Interview with the Thinking Man's Hooker and A Thousand and One Night Stands: The Life of Jon Vincent. You can follow her on Twitter.




Comments: 2
About the Indonesian gaffe, note in the above paragraph I have said "England is one of the random countries that I have been able to visit".. Did I upset anyone? I shouldn't of. Random means "of or pertaining to a member of a sample" That is the dictionary definition . In laymans terms, it means 'one item on a list'. The list is 'countries I have been to". So Justin said "some random country"..... and Scooter popped out with the countries name. Was Justin mentally pulling up his 'list of countries visited" and going through the list to come up with the place name? (Honestly, if one travels to many places in a whirlwind trip, one does have to stop and think, now where did this happen?)
I can't see this comment being a diss on Indonesia at all. More disturbing is the 'they didnt know what they were doing' comment. But that sentence clip came from the reviewer that clearly didnt like Justin at all. I would like to see/hear the entire sentence to see what he really said.
Should he apologize? I think he should clarify what he meant and go ahead and apologize. Even if he meant no disrespect ( and Im sure he did not by saying 'a random country') the taken out of context comments have certainly caused much confusion throughout the world.