Kelly Clarkson Vows To Play Jakarta Show Despite Anti-Smoking Protesters’ Pleas

The show will go on for Kelly Clarkson.

Despite the outrage sparked by news that her upcoming concert in Jakarta, Indonesia, has a tobacco company as a sponsor, Kelly said she will not be canceling her show.

“I can’t justify penalizing my fans for someone else’s oversight,” Kelly wrote in her blog on Wednesday. “This is a lose-lose situation for me and I am not happy about it but the damage has been done and I refuse to cancel on my fans.”

A host of groups including the Indonesian National Commission on Child Protection, the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids had publicly asked Kelly to withdraw from the show after it emerged that the concert – set for April 29 – is being sponsored by L.A. Lights cigarettes.

“If Kelly Clarkson goes ahead with this concert, she is choosing to be a spokesperson for the tobacco industry and helping them to market cigarettes to children,” Matthew L. Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in a statement on his group’s Web site. “If she rejects tobacco industry sponsorship, she can send a powerful message to children in Indonesia and around the world that they, too, should reject the tobacco industry’s deadly products and marketing.”

Kelly revealed on her blog that she only learned about the controversy on Wednesday and prior to that, she was unaware her show was being sponsored by the cigarette company.

“My morning began with finding out that I am all over billboards, tv ads, and other media formats along side a tobacco company who unbeknownst to me is sponsoring my Jakarta date on my current tour. I was not made aware of this and am in no way an advocate or an ambassador for youth smoking,” Kelly wrote on her blog. “I’m not even a smoker, nor have I ever been.”

The original “American Idol” said she was disappointed that she was targeted by the groups and she felt they were using her in a political manner.

“I think the hardest part of situations like this is getting personally attacked for something I was completely unaware of and being used as some kind of political pawn,” she wrote.