Bob Vylan member breaks silence on Glastonbury chants

Lead vocalist Bobby Vylan, half of the British punk-rap duo Bob Vylan, breaks his silence after their controversial Glastonbury performance over the weekend, featuring anti-Israel chants.

Currently facing the heat of their Glastonbury Festival set, which included the anti-IDF chants, to have their U.S. visas cancelled for the upcoming tour, in addition to a police probe in the U.K., and also being dropped by their talent agency UTA, Bob Vylan’s singer defended their death chants against Israel.

For the unversed, the music duo, known for mixing grime and punk rock, to tackle a range of social issues, has previously voiced their support for Palestine as well. Their Saturday set included on-stage chants of ‘death, death to the IDF’ (a reference to the Israel Defence Forces, fighting a war in Gaza) and ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine must be, will be, inshallah, it will be free’ – the phrase that is often taken in Israel as a call for the country’s destruction and denial of its right to exist.

Taking to his Instagram handle soon after, as the performers received messages of both ‘support and hatred’, Bobby shared a screengrab of the note, with the caption, “I said what I said.”  In the note, he defended the on-stage remarks, as the singer penned, “Teaching our children to speak up for the change they want and need is the only way that we make this world a better place.”

“As we grow older and our fire possibly starts to dim under the suffocation of adult life and all its responsibilities, it is incredibly important that we encourage and inspire future generations to pick up the torch that was passed to us,” he noted. “Let us display to them loudly and visibly the right thing to do when we want and need change. Let them see us marching in the streets, campaigning on the ground level, organising online and shouting about it on any and every stage that we are offered.”

 

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“Today it is a change in school dinners, tomorrow it is a change in foreign policy,” he concluded.