STOCKHOLM — When the rapper ASAP Rocky played an arena show in Stockholm on Wednesday night, it was the first time he had been to Sweden since August, when he was convicted over his part in a street brawl — a case that drew international attention when President Trump got involved.

Given the fuss, few fans at the concert said they had expected the rapper to return.

“If I was ASAP Rocky, I wouldn’t have,” Afrodite Kindtoft, 21, said with a laugh outside the golf ball-shaped Ericsson Globe, before the show there. Added Emma Aqvilin, 29, “When I heard about the concert, I thought it was a joke.”

So why was Rocky back?

Most fans said it was a thank-you for their support during the trial. But others thought there was another reason. “I think he kind of wants to spit the government in the face a little,” Kindtoft said, adding that the rapper’s return was a way of saying, “Hey, you don’t scare me that easy.”