Joss Stone Was ‘Detained And Deported’ From Iran While On Her World Tour

Remember Joss Stone? The noughties icon who only ever performed with a scarf around her microphone and left the UK for US fame only to return with an American accent? Well, she’s back and she’s causing more controversy than ever.

Currently on world tour, Stone has been attempting to play shows in every country in the world, on a mission ‘to bring good feeling with what I have to give and show those who want to look the positives of our globe.’ Travelling since March this year, she was set to fly to the last stop on her tour, Iran but revealed on Instagram on Wednesday that she was banned from entering the country and placed on a blacklist for the foreseeable future.

It is illegal for female musicians to perform in public in Iran, and according to her statement, the countries officials did not believe she would not attempt to perform at some point. ‘We were aware there couldn’t be a public concert as I am a woman and that is illegal in this country,’ she said on Instagram, ‘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,’ she continued, ‘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.’

Reiterating that the decision was made by immigration staff ‘with a heavy heart’, she said she still intends to ‘walk forward to [her] goal some way, somehow.’ While on her world tour, it was been reported that she illegally crossed into Syria to perform at Al-Malikiyah, soon after also performing in North Korea. Her stop just before being deported from Iran was Yemen, where was granted access to perform by the governor of Al Mahrah.

Alas, with the final leg of her tour meant to be in Iran her mission ‘to bring loveliness in the form of music to every single country on our planet’ seems to have come to an end

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