Chris Brown: Singer's UK tour in doubt after arrest in Manchester over alleged 2023 nightclub assault

The 36-year-old American musician was detained by Metropolitan Police officers in the early hours of Thursday, shortly after arriving in the UK. Detectives from London reportedly travelled to Manchester and arrested Brown at the five-star Lowry Hotel at around 2am. He had landed at Manchester Airport on a private jet on Wednesday afternoon.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “A 36-year-old man was arrested at a hotel in Manchester shortly after 02:00hrs on Thursday, 15 May on suspicion of grievous bodily harm. He has been taken into custody where he remains. The arrest relates to an incident at a venue in Hanover Square on 19 February 2023. The investigation is being led by detectives from the Central West Area Basic Command Unit.”

According to The Sun, Brown was held over an alleged bottle attack on music producer Abe Diaw at Tape, a popular nightclub in Mayfair, Central London.

The arrest has cast uncertainty over Brown’s 11:11 tour, which he had announced in March as a celebration of two decades in the music industry. In a post to his 146 million Instagram followers, he wrote: “CELEBRATING 20 years of CB. So excited to be able to share this moment with the world and my amazing fans... I CANT WAIT TO SEE ALL YALLS BEAUTIFUL FACES. IMA TAKE YALL THREW THESE ERAS BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY GIVE YALL MY HEART AND SOUL.”

The tour is scheduled to begin on June 8 in Amsterdam, before moving to the UK with two sold-out nights at Manchester’s Co-Op Live stadium, followed by shows in Cardiff, London, Birmingham, Glasgow, and Dublin. He is set to be joined by fellow R&B stars Summer Walker in the US leg and Bryson Tiller in Europe and the UK.

No official announcement has been made regarding the status of his upcoming tour dates.