Political concerts, controversial concerts. British justice will have been right with the American Kneecap tour. The Irish rap group, currently in the heart of a legal battle with the United Kingdom authorities, announced, on Monday, August 25, the direct cancellation of its fifteen concerts scheduled for the United States in October 2025, they were complete.
A decision that contrasts with its commitment held on the European soil, especially in Paris, where four times will occur: on September 8 and 9, 2025 in Trianon and on November 10 and 11, 2025 in Ellsée Montmartre.
“Due to the proximity of our next hearing at the London court on September 26, while the British government continues its witch hunt, with the beginning of the US tour, we will have to cancel the 15 dates of the US tour in October,” the group announced on Monday.
This cancellation has its origin in the judicial problems of Mo Chara, one of the trio members. The rapper is accused of a terrorist offensive in the United Kingdom after a given concert in London on November 21, 2024, in which a flag would have been in support of Hezbollah, a Lebanese organization classified terrorist in the country. The group has categorically denied any support for Hamas or Hezbollah, denouncing the exploitation “of a video extract deliberately outside its context.”
The group, which had already been spoken during their visit to Glastonbury this summer repeating “Fuck Keir Starmer” and “Free, Free Palestine”, promises his American fans “something very special next week so that we can still make the link with all of you in October.” Compensation that remains mysterious but could take the form of a virtual event.
A remarkable passage in Rock in Seine
Despite these judicial turbulence, Kneecap did not give up its four French concerts and multiply the statements made in Palestine, not without putting controversy. During their visit to Rock in Seine on Sunday, August 24, the group members launched slogans as “free and free Palestine”, or “Netanyahu is a war criminal” and “if you don’t call it genocide, what are you calling this?” The “We We Live” collective tried to interrupt the concert.
Originally from Belfast, Kneecap has established itself as an essential group of the European rap scene. Mix the English, gaelic and political texts, their concerts become militant and energetic manifestations.
Source: BFM TV
