Lineup announced for Brian Eno's Palestine benefit concert at Wembley Arena

Metro

3 days ago

The lineup has finally been announced for Brian Eno's Together for Palestine benefit concert at Wembley Arena.
The huge benefit show will bring together British and Palestinian artists at the 12,500-capacity venue to raise funds for Choose Love, a British charity working with 23 partner organisations in Gaza to deliver food, medical supplies, and other support.
Eno said of the event: 'In the face of the horrors of Gaza, silence becomes complicity. Artists have always helped societies to point out injustice and imagine better futures. That's why this concert matters. It's time for us to come together – not just to raise our voices, but to reaffirm our shared humanity.'
The concert will be produced by Khaled Ziada, Brian Eno, and Oscar-winning film producer Tracey Seaward.
Ziada, founder and director of the London Palestine Film Festival, described the event as an urgent act of collective resistance: 'In a world where governments and mainstream media have fallen silent in the face of genocide,' he said.
'This gathering becomes a chorus of resistance – where artists and communities come together to grieve, to rage and to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Palestinian people.'
British artists performing include: Bastille Cat Burns Greentea Peng Hot Chip James Blake King Krule Mabel Obongjayar Paloma Faith Rachel Chinouriri Sampha
Palestinian artists performing include: Adnan Joubran Faraj Suleiman Nai Barghouti
One-off contributors: PinkPantheress Rina Sawayama Riz Ahmed
With more names set to be revealed in the coming weeks…
The evening promises to be more than a concert. It is being conceived as a multidisciplinary platform for grief, resistance, and political visibility – one that confronts silence with sound, and erasure with art.
Lending their voices are musicians like singer-songwriter Rachel Chinouriri, fresh off tour with Sabrina Carpenter, who urged her peers to join her in 'building a bridge to victims in Gaza and beyond. We must break through the privilege of our bubble and speak with truth and justice.'
Damon Albarn, another vocal participant, echoed the sentiment with a reminder that pacifism is not passive: 'Pacifism is an action. Peace is an action. To live peacefully requires vision and commitment … I am grateful for this opportunity to act in solidarity with the Palestinian people.'
The visual and spatial storytelling of the event will be just as potent. The stage is being designed by Es Devlin, the celebrated artist behind some of the world's most iconic pop shows, from Beyoncé to U2.
She is collaborating with Palestinian painter Malak Mattar to ensure that the design embodies the event's larger message.
'The Wembley Arena stage,' Devlin said, 'will express the rich beauty of Palestinian culture.'
Early response online has been warm. 'Good on him,' wrote one Reddit user of Eno's involvement. 'Brian Eno is a legend, and has worked with so many other greats. This could be really positive.'
Another user posted simply: 'What a great man.'
Since Israel began its military campaign in Gaza after the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023, nearly 60,000 people have been killed – the vast majority civilians, including women, children, and infants, according to health authorities in Gaza.
Newly released images this week reveal the extent of the devastation, with entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble, the landscape blanketed in dust and ash.
On 25 July, a United Nations official warned that Palestinians in Gaza are starting to resemble 'walking corpses,' as Israel continues to impose severe limits on food and humanitarian aid, following an 11-week total blockade earlier this year.
The situation in Gaza is worsening by the hour, prompting more than 100 international aid organisations to warn of targeted 'mass starvation'.
Photos of starving Palestinians, some of them babies, have emerged from Gaza in the past weeks, sparking public outcry for intervention in the conflict, which is about to enter its third year.
Israel has denied any responsibility for what experts have deemed a famine, despite controlling the flow of all aid into the enclave.
Brian Eno, a key force behind the show's conception, has long advocated for Palestinian rights and the broader cultural boycott of Israel. More Trending
His involvement speaks not only to the musical caliber of the event, but also its political backbone. In 2017, Eno clashed publicly with Nick Cave over the ethics of the boycott movement.
Cave had described it as a form of censorship. Eno countered: 'This has nothing to do with 'silencing' artists – a charge I find rather grating when used in a context where a few million people are permanently and grotesquely silenced.'
The production will be staged in one of the UK's most iconic venues, a choice that underscores the scale and seriousness of its message. With names from across music, film, and art converging in solidarity, Together for Palestine is shaping up to be not just a concert, but a cultural moment.
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