With the classic Chirimiri in the background and the roar prior to the storm that forced the Bilbao BBK Live festival, Kobetamendi received Kneecap at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, the Belfast band. The first thing they showed was a series of messages on the screen on which you could read “Israel is committing a genocide against the Palestinian people that are being allowed by Western governments. More than 60,000 people have been killed by Israel in 18 months. Free Palestine.”
The public, dressed in Palestine, Ireland, Basque Country and Catalonia flags, and with the occasional balaclavas with the Irish flag, in honor of the outfit Regular from one of its members, he longed for the departure from the trio, who greeted them to the shout of “Euskal Herria”. They went on stage where only a mixer table and an ikurriña reigned and offered a 50 -minute show in which their speech was equally important as their music. In the public, hundreds of banners with the Palestine flag and a clear message: “Palestine liberate”(Free, in Basque).
Kneecap, whose members carried the classic Palestinian scarves, made Friday night at the Basque Festival something similar to what he has been offering since his creation, in 2017. But it is now when his recitals conceive a martemágnum of controversies, because his expeditious speech puts on stage, in a hallway, theme conflicts of a world with much of what is embarrassed. Two weeks ago, the Avon and Somerset English Police Department opened an investigation to the group after their performance at the Glastonbury Festival, where he led the screams of “free Palestine” of the crowd and showed his support for Palestine Action (Palestine Action), a protest group that the United Kingdom Government has described as a terrorist organization. The London band of Punk-Rap Bob Vylan is also under police surveillance, which shouted in the same scenario “death, death to the IDF” (“Death, Death to the Defense Forces of Israel”).
Kneecap also lashed out at the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, who had described his presence in this musical event, one of the most popular in the world: “The prime minister of his country, not mine, said he did not want us to play, so Keir Starmer be fucking.” Starmer, on the other hand, said: “There is no excuse for such a scandalous hate speech. I already said at the time that no one should offer a platform to Kneecap.” More than 100 popular musicians signed a public letter in support of the group, including Massive Attack, Pulp, Fontaines DC or IDLES, to get them to act in this festival and there they were, despite the fact that the BBC decided not to issue its performance live to meet its “editorial guidelines”.
@eletais The Irish band Kneecap, to which the English Police Department two weeks ago opened an investigation after their performance at the Glastonbury Festival for their shouts for a “free Palestine”, they have once again showed their support to Gaza and the Palestinians at the Bilbao Bbk Live festival, where they have also launched proclamations by the Basque people: “We grew up learning from the Basque people The challenge of saving Basque. #BBKLIVE #MUSICA #MUSICAENTKTOK #PALESTINA #ISRAEL #GAZA #KNEECAP
♬ Original sound – The country
In Bilbao, Kneecap full of pogos a concert in which they took the stage to Sol Band, a group of Gaza musicians who sang to Capela, who previously said to be “survivor of a genocide” and that thanked the musical formation of this opportunity: “Today we are here to tell everyone that we are Palestinians. To teach the rest of the world life. Speaking of life, speaking of the situation we live for many months in Gaza during the genocide. ”
In the middle of the concert, Kneecap once again made an allegation in defense of the Basque and Catalan languages, as well as his, the Irish. Ensuring that the Basque Country and Catalonia has always been an inspiration for the Irish people and that they have always supported them: “We grew up learning from the Basque people, the Basque struggle and the challenge of saving the Basque. The Irish have always felt identified and that is why we support the Palestinian people. We know everything about colonization and what happens to dictators. The Irish are still wrong, just like the Basques, that the Catalans and is happening now in Palestine. One of its members, DJ Próvaí, was in charge of carrying a flag of the Basque Country around the neck with the message “The Basques decide”, and which was launched by the citizen platform works by the “right of self -determination”, Gure Esku.
But, who is behind this band, what is proposed and why they are canceling many of their concerts. Kneecap is a rap trio that comes from Northern Ireland, sings in Irish and English gaelic. In his concerts they accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza. But that is only one of its themes: in its letters there are talks of drugs full of drugs, its desire to “free Ireland from the north of the British domain” and, in general, to put the means to dynamit the system. His biography of Spotify is clear: “condemned by politicians, worshiped by their fans, expelled from their own concerts and curtaining the tents of the festivals, Kneecap is a cultural phenomenon.”
The artistic names of its members are Mo Chara, BAP and DJ Próvaí and since their beginnings they got fully into the conflict in Ireland and in the defense of their language, reaching people through their politically incorrect lyrics: “Our day will arrive, he expels the British, boy.”
His concerts have become a trench that is as attractive as hostile, a Rave where fun and challenge joins. In one of these recitals in London in 2024, Mo Chara, whose real name is Liam Iog or Hannaid, is released on bail after declaring last June for a terrorism position after coming to light images of him showing a hezbollah flag in a concert in London last year. The band has insisted that these are images taken from context and has denied any type of support for this Chií Lebanese political and military formation, whose armed group is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union and by the United Kingdom.
Mo Chara, 27, is also accused of saying “above Hamas, above Hezbollah”, something that, he explained to The Guardian In an interview, it was a joke and part of his character on stage. In a statement they assured the British authorities that they would defend themselves and that they were not the problem, that “the problem is the genocide in Gaza”: “We are proudly next to the people. You are accomplices of war crimes. We are on the right side of the story. You do not.”
Uncomfortable but attractive
Bilbao BBK Live incorporated them at the last minute to his poster. In a statement, the festival said that “in times of conflict and censorship, music remains an essential speaker” and that the presence of Kneecap in the festival was “an act of cultural resistance, a celebration of freedom of expression and those who, like them, are not afraid to raise their voice to injustice.” They added that in the Basque event there would always be space “for the voices that bother, that question and that they refuse to shut up.”
They already came with previous controversies behind them. One of the most popular, that of Coachella, last April. The group projected the following message on the screen: “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. The United States government is allowing it, which arms and finances Israel despite its war crimes. Free Palestine.” On the stage of the Californian festival, Mo Chara also said, referring to the Palestinians, that the Irish had been “persecuted at the hands of the British”, but that they had never been “bombarded from the skies without any place to go.”
The movie of their lives
The name of this trio with republican affinities is a declaration of intentions: Kneecap means a bruise, and actually refers to the form of punishment of the Irish Republican army (anger) against traffickers and infiltrates, which consisted of hitting a shot in the sort.
This trio has a homonymous film where the members interpret themselves. The film, released in 2024 and is financed, in part, by the popular actor Michael Fassbender (who also appears as secondary) and directed by Rich Peppiatt – in Spain it can be seen in Filmin -, he raised them to international fame: he was awarded in Sunday and achieved one of the five Bafta awards (the English Goya) to which he opted. It is a biopic With licenses and that the unexpected jump to the fame of this band formed by two children of childhood and class class (Naoise or Cairealláin and Liam Iog or Hannaid) who team with a music teacher (JJ or Dochartaight). The film remembers a bit of Trainspotting OA Requiem for a dream: Drugs, parties, evasions and claims. From the beginning of the film they manifest their cultural resistance through the language: “Every word in Irish is a bullet fired by the freedom of Ireland.”
In this parody of their lives they also mention one of their first great controversies, which took place in 2019, when only 24 hours after the visit of Guillermo of England and Kate Middleton to the Empire Music Hall of Belfast, they acted and shouted again in English “were British!”. But they remember that their hatred is not towards the British, but towards their government.
Kneecap also won a judicial case against one of the leaders of the British Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, who had blocked an artistic subsidy for the band alleging antibritanic policies. Already in 2023 some images of the trio were leaked in which they seemed to say “the only good conservative is a dead conservative”, although they explained that they had taken out of context and apologized for the damage caused to the families of the British deputies killed Jo Cox and Sir David Amess.
With all the eyes on them from Coachella, they allege that theirs is a satire and that they are victims of a distraction maneuver: “If you believe that what a satirical band does that interprets characters on stage is more scandalous than the murder of innocent Palestinians, then you should do something.”