Alicia Keys and Pharrell slammed for performing in Saudi Arabia

Alicia Keys and Pharell Williams have been panned for performing at the Saudi Grand Prix.

Both musicians are set to perform in Jeddah at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Saturday.

But a human-rights campaigner has put them both on blast for their participation in the event.

"Alicia Keys and Pharrell Williams should not be performing in Saudi Arabia. It's a dictatorship that persecutes women, LGBTs and religious and ethnic minorities," human rights campaigner and former politician Peter Tatchell told The Sun.

"Women are in jail because of the country’s sexist laws. The regime murdered and dismembered the journalist Jamal Khashoggi."

Peter also criticised Saudi Arabia for having 43-year-old Alicia host Jeddah's Women To Women, an International Women's Day event.

"It is total hypocrisy for Saudi Arabia to host Alicia Keys for an International Women's Day event when the regime jails advocates for women's equality," he said.

"I'm shocked that Alicia Keys is colluding with this whitewashing of Saudi misogyny."

He went on to say no celebrities should ever agree to perform in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia unless they were using it as a platform to speak out about human-rights abuses.

"No artists should be going to Saudi unless they speak out publicly to demand women’s freedom and an end to other human rights abuses in the country, including the freeing of all political prisoners," he said