Claim: Pictures show Jennifer Lopez wearing a sacred sword during a performance at Riyadh Season 2024.
Fact: The pictures do not show Jennifer Lopez at Riyadh Season 2024. They show Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna performing at a concert in New York.
On 15 and 16 November 2024, a number of users on Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) posted photos of a singer wearing a double-headed sword around her waist on stage. They claimed that the singer was Jennifer Lopez performing at the recent Riyadh Season festival and the sword resembles that of Ali Ibn Abi Talib.
Jennifer Lopez performed at Riyadh Season on 13 November 2024 as part of “The 1001 Seasons of Elie Saab’” fashion show and received much coverage, as seen here, here, and here. However, the star’s performance and attire became the subject of controversy on social media, as documented by Middle East Eye, which includes posts on X that called out the “hypocrisy” of Lopez “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.”
In the midst of this controversy, images circulated on social media a few days later of a singer wearing a double-headed sword around her waist. Users claimed that the singer was Lopez and the sword resembled the one wielded by historical figure Ali Ibn Abi Talib. Some of the captions stated that the images were seen as disrespectful of Islamic culture.
Fact or Fiction?
Conducting a reverse-image search of the viral photos, Soch Fact Check found that the singer was Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna, and the photos were from a concert she held in New York.
One of the results from the reverse-image search led us to this post on Facebook which shared the image with the claim that it shows Jennifer Lopez performing with the double-headed sword of Ali Ibn Abi Talib. However, the post had been flagged for false information. This, in turn, led us to a fact-check of these photos conducted by AFP.
According to AFP, the photos are from a concert held by Elyanna in New York on 24 October 2024, approximately three weeks before the photos went viral. As seen in the article linked above, the singer is seen to be wearing the same attire with the double-headed sword around her waist. On the Instagram account of photographer Ann Storlie, who covered the concert in October, the same pictures of Elyanna are seen with the caption “Elyanna 📸 for @melodicmag”. The singer’s own Instagram account also featured images of herself in this outfit from the recent concert.
Hence, the photos claiming to show Jennifer Lopez with a double-headed sword wrapped around her waist as she performs at Riyadh Season are false. The photos actually show Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna performing at a concert in New York.
Virality
On X, the photos were found here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On Facebook, the photos were found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On Instagram, the photos were found here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The singer in the viral photos is Elyanna, not Jennifer Lopez. The images are of the Palestinian-Chilean singer performing at a concert in New York in October 2024, and are entirely unrelated to the Riyadh Season festival held in November.
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Background image in cover photo: Middle East Eye
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