Coachella 2025: Kneecap show support for Palestine following censorship claims
Irish trio Kneecap have posted evidence of their pro-Palestinian message that they used as a backdrop for their recent Coachella performance. This comes after they claimed their first set was censored by the Californian festival last weekend.
The first of the posted backdrops reads: “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.” The second reads: “It is being enabled by the US government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes.”
The final backdrop was a clear statement of resistance: “Fuck Israel / Free Palestine.”
After their set on April 12th, the trio claimed that pro-Palestinian messaging wasn’t allowed to be featured on the screen on stage at this year’s Coachella, which they promised to amend. The same live stream was also cut short because of anti-Margaret Thatcher chants that they included in one of their songs.
“Not the only thing that was cut – our messaging on the US-backed genocide in Gaza somehow never appeared on screens either,” Kneecap wrote on X. “Back next Friday Coachella and it’ll be sorted.”
Saturday night headliners Green Day also used their slot on to make a lyrical alteration during their performance of ‘Jesus of Suburbia’.
Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong sang, “Runnin’ away from pain, like the kids from Palestine / Tales from another broken home,” in replacement of the original lyric that reads, “Runnin’ away from pain when you’ve been victimised.”
Kneecap have always been advocates of using art as a means of platforming causes. “If art can court controversy, I think that’s a good thing because that is the role of art within society,” rapper Móglaí Bap told Far Out in 2024. “I think there is a lack of that (controversy) in the music industry because people want to impress major labels.”
They also revealed to Far Out that their label, Heavenly Recordings, doesn’t intervene in their intermixture of art and politics. “We were approached by some major labels before we signed with Heavenly, who are amazing and stand by what we do. They said from day one, they’re not going to stop us how we approach art and our politics,” he added.
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