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Kelly Clarkson woke up to a new controversy that she didn’t even know she started. Kelly, who was at the Perth Airport in Western Australia yesterday for the next stop on her world tour, was set to perform in Jakarta on April 29th thanks to the sponsorship of cigarette company Diarum. Billboards advertising the show were splashed with the company’s L.A. Lights brand.

Matt Myers, the president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, was quoted in the Associated Press saying, “If Kelly Clarkson goes ahead with the concert, she is by choice being a spokesman for the tobacco industry and helping them to market to children.” She must have heard him because she took to her blog today to cancel her show.

So ….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. I’m not even a smoker, nor have I ever been. Unfortunately, my only option at this point was to cancel the show in order to stop the sponsorship. However, I can’t justify penalizing my fans for someone else’s oversight. 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. 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.

Why doesn’t she find a new sponsor like the ones she has been tied to for good causes? Any company that stepped up now and wants a healthy brand image would probably benefit from the spotlight.