Joss Stone believes she was stopped from performing in Iran because of her boobs.
The ‘Right to Be Wrong’ hitmaker was detained by immigration officials before being removed from the country in 2019, after being “blacklisted” over the fear she might perform a public show, which is illegal for females to do solo in the country.
The 33-year-old singer wanted to perform in every country across the globe at the time and insisted she didn’t intend to play a public concert in the Islamic Republic.
And in hindsight, the ‘Masked Singer’ champion has admitted it was “foolish” to think she would be able to play a gig in Iran.
Joss is quoted by the Daily Star newspaper as saying: “I think it was my boobs. We played every country – we went to Libya, Syria, North Korea. I tried not to leave any country out.
“Just because I am a woman, how foolish of me to think I could come and perform.”
At the time, Joss shared a video on Instagram, in which she wore a white headscarf and said: “Well, we got to Iran, we got detained and then we got deported.”
“So , our very last country on the list was Iran .
“We were aware there couldn’t be a public concert as I am a woman and that is illegal in this country. Personally I don’t fancy going to an Iranian prison nor am I trying to change the politics of the countries I visit nor do I wish to put other people in danger.
“However, it seems the authority’s don’t believe we wouldn’t be playing a public show so they have popped us on what they call the ‘black list ‘ as we found out when we turned up to the immigration hall. After long discussions with the most friendly charming and welcoming immigration people the decision was made to detain us for the night and to deport us in the morning. Of course I was gutted. So close yet so far, this moment broke a little piece of my heart. (sic)”
The ‘Super Duper Love’ hitmaker explained she was trying to showcase the “positives of our globe” and praised the “nice, kind” officials who dealt with her and her team when they flew into Iran.