Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Season, one of the world’s largest winter entertainment events hosting fashion shows, concerts, and dance performances by pop icons, is sparking controversy online this week due to Jennifer Lopez’s performance and the similarity of a stage prop to Islam’s holiest site.  

One of the fashion shows featured a runway with a cube-shaped display resembling the Kaaba in Mecca. Models circled around it, much like the ritual of Muslim pilgrims circling the Kaaba during the Hajj pilgrimage. Many viewed the juxtaposition of the models against something resembling the holiest site in Islam as disrespecting the religion. 

The event is generally seen as a positive development for the kingdom’s nascent entertainment and tourism industry after being launched in 2019 under Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 initiative to promote tourism.

The viral controversy continued to grow as social media users shared stage footage from the 2023 Riyadh Season, during which another cube-shaped stage structure was used.

Many online clarified that it was not meant to emulate the Kaaba but a display screen used by several entertainment companies. A Saudi Arabian NGO, the Anti-Rumors Authority, also confirmed that it was not a model of the Kaaba, but the similarity and imagery angered many people.  

Many have been divided over the Riyadh Season amid the debates about disrespectful dance performances and icons on stage at the home of the two holy mosques in Islam. 

While many support the cultural promotion of Saudi Arabia and the international recognition that the country is getting, others have said the shows were disrespectful to the most important and holiest sites of Islam, such as the Kaaba, Al Masjid Al Haram in Mecca, and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina.

Lopez’s concert in Riyadh Season sparked a lot of criticism, with people calling out the “hypocrisy” of her being free to dance in revealing clothes in Saudi Arabia while many women are frequently punished for the way they dress or for their dissenting voices about women’s rights. 

JLo with her butt out and about barely covering her crotch dancing in Saudi Arabia

While Saudi women are still getting punished over how they dress up, and for speaking up against religion 👻pic.twitter.com/qyWvEz49wn

— Meriam Al Sultan سا(حرة) 🪄 (@AlSultan_Meriam) November 13, 2024

Some in the audience during Lopez’s performance refused to watch her show by looking at their phones, and social media users also noticed this, saying that people were offended by her show and felt their religion was being disrespected. 

Muslim religious leaders around the world, such as Mehmet Gormez, former president of the Presidency of Religious Affairs in Turkey, also joined the conversation and criticised the event as “a violation of God’s sanctities and boundaries, and the use of a model of our holiest sanctities, the Holy Kaaba, as a stage for actors and a decoration around which naked dancers and models walk”.

بيان حول الإساءة للرموز والشعائر الإسلامية في أرض الحرمين الشريفين

بسم الله والحمدلله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله، وعلى آله وصحبه ومن والاه..
﴿ذَلِكَ وَمَن يُعَظِّم شَعَائِرَ الله فَإِنَّهَا مِن تَقْوَى القُلُوبِ﴾
أما بعد..
فقد هالنا وأفزعنا وفجعنا ما حصل ويحصل في… pic.twitter.com/OmC2HAB8VT

— Mehmet Görmez (@DIBMehmetGormez) November 19, 2024

Many social media users also pointed out that it is disrespectful of Saudi Arabia to host such a large-scale entertainment show while Israel’s war on Gaza is continuing. The death toll in Gaza is now approaching 44,000 people, while many are displaced and face a severe threat of famine. People said the show is in bad taste, while so many in Gaza and Lebanon are suffering from Israel’s wars.

As Israel is slaughtering Palestinians, Pakistani politicians, bureaucrats & military personnel are busy in celebrating “His Majesty” birthday while Saudi Arab hosts a Riyadh season with dancers & singers performing in front of a black cube, an uncanny resemblance to Holy Kaaba. pic.twitter.com/n8XxzO6mGP

— Ahmed Rashid (@ThisahmedR) November 19, 2024

Saudi Arabia has come under scrutiny for human rights violations and executions of foreigners.

Even though Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last week denounced Israel’s war on Gaza as a “genocide” and has backed calls for a ceasefire and a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, critics of the country argued that this was a recognition that came too late.

Mohamed bin Salman has recently said that his government will not normalise relations with Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

This is not the first time Saudi Arabia and its cultural events and symbols have sparked controversy. Earlier this year, Saudia Arabia started working on the Mukaab, a large gold cube structure in Riyadh that may become the largest building in the world, amid criticism that it resembles the Kaaba in Mecca.

The $50bn project is set to be 400 metres tall, 400 metres long, and 400 metres wide.

While some called it a good way to diversify Saudi Arabia’s oil-reliant economy and open it up to tourism, others criticised its resemblance to the Kaaba.

The structure is also part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which has received some backlash due to continued human rights abuses in the country. Some rights groups have dubbed this as an effort to whitewash the country’s crimes.