British musicians Bob Vylan and Kneecap have sparked controversy after leading chants against the Israeli military and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during their performances at the Glastonbury music festival. Click to see more of culture-blaster Bob Vylan’s set, which stole the show on Friday. Let’s rejoice together, death, death to the IDF. Here he pointedly singled out the Israel Defense Forces. British police should publicly announce the step of launching a criminal investigation. She revealed that they are investigating possible public order offenses relating to comments made on stage.
ODC’s audience poured into the performances throughout the weekend, their responses indicating a highly-charged emotional evening that paired with the complicated, inflammatory messages to create powerful art. Kneecap made a point of denouncing Israel as they led anti-Starmer chants, dramatically raising the temperature around the event. British police are at this hour piecing together video surveillance from both squads. They’re further analyzing audio recordings as part of an ongoing investigation into this issue.
To prevent these conversations, the Israeli embassy in London publicly called to cancel both bands’ actions. On the other side of this battle, Starmer was raising his profile and calling for the BBC to be held accountable for airing such a program.
The impact has gone far beyond the UK, as Bob Vylan now finds themselves feeling the fallout across the sea in the United States. Meanwhile, the US State Department has issued a blanket visa revocation for members of the band. They claim that the “hateful tirade at Glastonbury” is what has led them to this decision. US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau stated, “Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country.” He elaborated on the visa revocation through a post on X, saying, “The @StateDept has revoked the US visas for the members of the Bob Vylan band in light of their hateful tirade at Glastonbury, including leading the crowd in death chants.”
Bob Vylan has never hidden their support for Palestinians. This recent event further corroborates their longstanding animus against political speech. Lead vocalist Bobby Vylan responded to the backlash on Instagram with the words ‘I said what I said’. He acknowledged the mixed reactions he received, noting he was “inundated with messages of both support and hatred.”
The band will be touring the US in support of their Fall Records release this November. Their plans are now up in the air due to visa complications. In May, one of Kneecap’s own ran into serious legal trouble. This time, they were hit with a terrorism charge because they had supposedly shown a Hezbollah flag at one of their earlier shows.
Even as investigations continue into the Glastonbury incident, tensions flare. It remains to be seen how this will impact Bob Vylan’s future bookings and their commitment to using music as a bridge for political conversation.
