Music News

Chris Brown was arrested at his hotel in Manchester, U.K. on Thursday morning (May 15) over what British authorities alleged was an attack on a music producer at a London nightclub two years ago. According to The Independent, Brown, 36, was detained by Metropolitan Police at the five-star Lowry Hotel in Salford just hours after he arrived on a private jet.

The singer was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm, with officials telling the paper, “A 36-year-old man was arrested at a hotel in Manchester shortly after 2am on Thursday, May 15 on suspicion of grievous bodily harm,” without naming Brown, per protocol. “He has been taken into custody where he remains. The arrest relates to an incident at a venue in Hanover Square on February 19, 2023. The investigation is being led by detectives from the Central West Area Basic Command Unit.”

According to the paper, producer Abraham Diaw accused Brown of smashing him over the head with a bottle and kicking him at the Tape nightclub on that night, with Diaw previously telling The Sun on Sunday that Brown “hit me over the head two or three times. My knee collapsed as well.” Diaw has also lodged a civil complaint against Brown for $16 million seeking damagers for injuries and losses as a result of the alleged incident, according to The Independent.

At press time a spokesperson for Brown had not returned a request for comment on the arrest.

Brown has a long history of arrests and allegations of violence, including his 2009 beating of then-girlfriend Rihanna, which led to him being charged with felony assault; that incident resulted in the U.K. denying Brown a visa to travel there for a short tour in 2010. In 2012 he was involved in a brawl with Drake and his entourage at a N.Y. nightclub that injured eight people, followed by an altercation with Frank Ocean over a parking space in West Hollywood in 2013.

The singer was also arrested for felony assault for punching a man outside a hotel in Washington, D.C. in 2013, which led to him being charged with a probation violation and a sentence of 131 days in lockup. He was also allegedly among the men behind an assault on a man during a basketball game at Palms Casino Resort in 2015, an incident his team denied he was involved in. In 2016, Brown was arrested at his home on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and, a year later, was court-ordered to stay 100 yards away from ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran after she told a court he’d repeatedly threatened her. Among other similar incidents, Brown and several members of his entourage were named in a lawsuit over an alleged assault following one of the singer’s shows in Fort Worth, Texas in which Brown and several accomplices allegedly “brutally and severely beat” four men.

Brown is preparing to launch the European leg of his Breezy Bowl XX Tour, which is slated to kick off on June 8 at Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam. It was not known at press time if Brown’s arrest will hamper his ability to play a planned series of June shows in the U.K. on the tour.

At press time it was also unclear if Brown was still in custody and it did not appear as if he’d commented on the arrest on his social feeds; a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police department had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment at press time.