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Telegraph
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The anti-Semitism row tearing heavy metal apart
For all its thrashing guitars and screamed lyrics, the world of heavy metal is actually relatively peaceable. Unlike other parts of the music industry, it wears its politics lightly, with fans much more interested in headbanging to their favourite songs than anything else. While this year's Glastonbury crowds were a sea of Palestine flags, hard rock fans tend not to bother with such overt virtue-signalling. So it came as a surprise that, amid the joyous scenes at Ozzy Osbourne's final gig at Birmingham's Villa Park on July 5, a performer was apparently booed for being supportive of Israel. View this post on Instagram A post shared by BUDDYHEAD ☭ Travis Keller (@buddyhead_) As David Draiman, the Jewish frontman of Chicago rockers Disturbed, took to the stage, he was met with a chorus of disapproval, likely prompted by his outspoken defence of Israel. In 2024 he shared pictures of himself signing artillery shells that the Israel Defence Forces were planning to use during the Gaza campaign, with the inscription 'F--k Hamas'. He has also publicly criticised fellow rockers Green Day for changing the lyrics to some of their live songs to be supportive of the Palestinian cause, and recently publicly condemned the controversial Glastonbury set by English punk duo Bob Vylan, who led death chants to the IDF and are now under criminal investigation. Draiman, who was part of an all-star ensemble set to cover Black Sabbath's Sweet Leaf, responded by simply asking the audience: 'We gonna start this?' It was only the day after the performance that the 52-year-old Draiman let his frustration at how he was treated be known. 'Yes, there were a few boos when I walked out, but I came to pay homage to my teachers, my idols, the mighty Black Sabbath, and I wasn't about to let a few Jew-hating morons deter that. It's all about feeding their narrative, generating clickbait, and inciting hatred of Jews,' he wrote on social media. 'Still coming back to the UK in the fall to what's shaping up to be a VERY successful run, if ticket sales are any indication. And I am STILL, UNAPOLOGETICALLY, A FIERCELY PRO-ISRAEL JEW,' he added in his post on X. 'I will ALWAYS stand up for my people, and I won't be deterred, intimidated, or shamed out of rocking the asses of the masses. Put that in your pipes and smoke it.' That could have been that, pipes smoked, but it was instead an early shot in an ugly row about Israel and Palestine that threatens to tear heavy metal apart. On July 11, comments made by Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello – the organiser of the Black Sabbath gig that raised more than £140 million for charity – 10 days previously surfaced on a music podcast, on which he discussed contemporary artists who hold a similarly anti-establishment attitude. Morello, 61, said that Kneecap were 'clearly the Rage Against The Machine of now' and praised the Irish punk rappers for championing the Palestinian cause. The Belfast trio have found themselves at the centre of controversy this year for their pronouncements about the Israel-Hamas war and have regularly accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. One of their number, Mo Chara (aka Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh), has been charged with a terrorism offence after allegedly displaying the flag of the Hezbollah terrorist group at a London gig last November; Ó Hannaidh denies the charges, has been granted unconditional bail and is set to appear in court again on August 20. 'What they're doing in their art is what people could probably stand to do more in their lives: to really speak truth to power. And, you know, Kneecap are not terrorists,' Morello said on The Strombo Show. 'What is terroristic is, you know, 20,000 dead Palestinian children. That's the story. Not some Irish rappers who don't like that that's happening. [That] should not be the story.' (Ironically, Osbourne's wife, Sharon, has previously called for Kneecap's American visas to be revoked for saying 'F--- Israel / Free Palestine' at California's Coachella festival in May.) For Draiman, Morello's public lauding of Kneecap was like a red rag to a bull. Draiman wrote online that Morello's comments were 'shameful' and that he wished he 'could say [he] was shocked'. He added, again on X, last Saturday: 'Guess my family doesn't count, when it comes to my 'friend's' virtue signaling for those who support terror, and incite Jew hatred.' Morello has not publicly responded to Draiman. All of this could be seen as an unwelcome distraction for Draiman, as Disturbed are one of the most successful heavy metal bands of this century. Their debut album, 2000's The Sickness, was a commercial hit powered by singles Down With the Sickness and Stupify, and their subsequent five records all hit number-one in the American charts; they have also had three top 10 albums in the UK. The success of Disturbed is often put down to their ability to combine the sounds of crowd-friendly nu-metal and lusty heavy metal, much of which is a result of Draiman's atypical baritone voice (the band regularly plays Simon & Garfunkel's The Sound of Silence, for instance). Ian Christe, author of Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal, says that Draiman is 'certainly an outlier in having a specific advocacy for one cause' but that the genre's stars, from Osbourne onwards, have always been willing to make points about society through their music. 'Compared with hard rock bands of the day, like Led Zeppelin or Aerosmith or Deep Purple, who were singing about girls and cars, Black Sabbath were singing about war pigs and the machinations of politicians sending young people, who are basically their audience, off to fight in these wars,' he says. 'So much of what happens in heavy metal happens in this bubble. When, all of a sudden, there's a sound within this bubble it could seem like the entire heavy metal world is full of this Zionist, pro-Netanyahu warmongering, which is definitely not true. What I think it is is a cauldron of extremely passionate people,' Christe adds. 'Heavy metal crosses class lines, it crosses racial lines and ethnic lines — but it amplifies things. So the heavy metal factor is like a tripling of whatever existed: that goes with the fashion, that goes with the relationships, it goes with the music but it also goes with the politics.' Draiman is unusual in the music industry for his outspoken support of Israel before and during the current war in Gaza, which was sparked by the Hamas attacks of October 7 2023. He was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York and moved to Chicago as a child. Growing up, he sang traditional Jewish songs during religious festivals, which 'led to choir and cantorial training', and when he was in his early teens, Draiman was leading the singing at services as well as discovering his love of rock through the likes of the Sex Pistols and The Cure. So devoted was Draiman to his faith that he has said that he was 'about two years away from being ordained as a rabbi' before suffering a 'crisis of conscience'. Instead, after graduating from university he started work as a healthcare administrator, but gave up his six-figure salary to try and make it as a full-time rock star. It was a gamble that his parents thought 'was nuts', but paid off handsomely. To all of you who are surprised by my #Zionism, and continued defense of #Israel and and the Jewish people, allow me to clarify a few things; 1. I'm a Jew. 2. My entire family lives in Israel, and I have had family living there for over a century. #AmYisraelChai — David Draiman 🟦🎗️🇺🇸🇮🇱✡️☮️ (@davidmdraiman) October 22, 2023 Draiman has repeatedly publicly sparred with Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, who criticised Disturbed for playing a gig in Tel Aviv (at which they played the Israeli national anthem) six years ago. Waters, who caused controversy himself in 2023 when he appeared in Berlin wearing what many said looked like a Nazi-style uniform (though he argued that depicting an 'unhinged fascist demagogue' has always been a key feature of Pink Floyd shows as a challenge to authoritarianism), is a long-time supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which lobbies for the cutting of ties with Israel. 'Regardless of whether it's Israel or anywhere else, boycotting an entire society and an entire people based on the actions of its government is absolutely ridiculous. And it doesn't accomplish anything,' Draiman said of Waters's criticism of his band in 2019. 'The very notion that Waters and the rest of his comrades decide that this is the way to go ahead and foster change is absolute lunacy and idiocy – absolute. It makes no sense whatsoever. It's only based on hatred of a culture and of a people and of a society that have been demonised unjustifiably since the beginning of time. You wanna be able to bring people together? You wanna effect social change on a real level? Bring them together for a concert.' For all the talk about bringing people together, Draiman appeared to have the self-awareness to know that not everybody liked what he was saying; Disturbed's 2022 album was called Divisive. It only reached 13th and 17th in the American and British album charts, respectively. 'I think that we're the kind of band that people either really, really love or really, really hate. There's not a whole lot of in-between, right,' he told Revolver magazine that year. 'I think that anything that's worth feeling passionate about brings extremes of polarity to it. The art that should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed, right? I've definitely figured out how to come to peace with it. I like the fact that people are passionate one way or the other about what we do.' While Morello has not responded to Draiman's recent criticism of him, the members of Kneecap have supported their new champion. 'We don't care what religion anyone is…or if they've one at all. We love all sound c--ts,' they wrote on X on Sunday. 'Smiling and signing bombs to murder kids and other people's families just makes you a straight up c--t. Simple as. Free Palestine.' Inevitably, as has been the case throughout this conflict, Draiman replied in kind later that day. 'That shell was meant for Hamas. You know, the organization who has sworn to murder all Jews, not just Israelis, time and time again, including my family. You shoot at Jews? Expect Jews to shoot back,' he wrote to Kneecap. 'All innocent lives lost in this conflict are due to Hamas using their own people as cannon fodder so that they can gain the sympathy of those who are only too eager to jump on the Jew hating train. If the hostages were released and Hamas surrendered, the bloodshed would end. But neither you, nor Hamas really want that. Because without dead martyred Palestinians to fuel your zeitgeist, both you and them lose power,' Draiman added. 'Enjoy your five minutes gentlemen. It could have been done with your art, but instead you chose to do it with hatred. Bye now.' Draiman may have said goodbye, but that is unlikely to be the last word in this increasingly fraught heavy metal conflict.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sheila Majid to celebrate 40 years in showbiz with a Kuala Lumpur mega concert
16 Jul - Following the success of her 2023 show, Sheila Majid will be back on stage again to celebrate her 40th year in music. Aptly titled "Sheila Majid 40 Years in Music", the upcoming concert will be held on 8 November at 8.30pm at the Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil, making it her first-ever solo mega concert. "Forty years is a long career. I never imagined being blessed with the love and support of fans who have stood by me all this time," said Sheila at the press conference announcing the concert earlier. "This is a gift. My longevity in this industry isn't something I achieved alone. I've been lucky to have so many brilliant people." She added that the upcoming concert is a tribute to all who have worked with her and alongside her throughout the decades. Her last big concert was the one-night only "Sheila Majid BIG BAND Live in Kuala Lumpur" in 2023. Tickets range from RM3,400 (Party Zone) to RM268 (CAT 4) and can be purchased beginning 17 July via ticket2u.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Miley Cyrus clarifies the real reason why she won't be going on tour soon
Unfortunately, tickets to a Miley Cyrus concert are not on the horizon. The 32-year-old singer revealed the real reason why she doesn't want to go on a major tour during Tuesday's episode of Good Morning America. 'I do have the physical ability, and I have the opportunity to tour,' she said. 'I wish I had the desire, but I don't. I also don't think that there's an infrastructure that supports artists.' Cyrus then spoke about fellow artists who spent a lot of time on tour, like the late Prince, and the 'high intensity lifestyle' they had on the road. 'It's really hard to maintain sobriety when you're on the road, which is kind of a pillar of stability in my life,' she explained. 'None of this that I create would even be possible without the way I think about things.' Miley Cyrus says it's 'hard to maintain sobriety' on the road as she reveals why she's not touring (Getty Images) The 'Flowers' singer has been sober for years, after she stopped drinking alcohol in 2020 and quit smoking marijuana in 2017. She opened up about her sobriety journey during an interview with Apple Music 1's Zane Lowe in May, saying that sobriety is something she 'needs.' 'I live for it. I mean that it's changed my entire life,' she said. She also reflected on her decision to briefly drink again in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, before officially quitting. 'I know I needed to fall one more time,' the Disney Channel alum explained. 'And I just, I had to. It just never would have happened this way. I just never would have been sitting here.' Cyrus hasn't been on an official tour since 2014, which was after she released her studio album Bangerz. She has since done performances at major shows and events, including the 2024 Grammy Awards. She's previously spoken about her lack of desire to tour. During an interview posted on her TikTok in 2023, she said that while a show is often only 90 minutes, a tour is still something that 'becomes your life.' 'If you're performing at a certain level of intensity and excellence, there should be an equal amount of recovery and rest,' she said at the time. 'And I think when you're training your ego every single night to be active, that's the hardest switch for me to turn off.' She continued: 'Having every day the relationship between you and other humans being subject and observer isn't healthy for me because it erases my humanity and my connection. And without my humanity and my connection, I can't be a songwriter, which is my priority.' During the May interview with Lowe, Cyrus also detailed how her voice has changed over the years. She revealed she was diagnosed with Reinke's edema, a vocal cord disorder that she described as 'abuse of the vocal cords.' 'Being 21 and staying up and drinking and smoking and partying after every show does not help. But also, in my case, it does not cause it. My voice always sounded like this, so it's a part of my unique anatomy,' the 'Wrecking Ball' singer added. 'So I have this very large polyp on my vocal cord, which has given me a lot of the tone and the texture that has made me who I am.'
CTV News
a day ago
- Entertainment
- CTV News
American Idol music supervisor and husband both found dead in L.A. home
The stage at the "American Idol" farewell season finale at the Dolby Theatre on Thursday, April 7, 2016, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File) LOS ANGELES — An American Idol music supervisor and husband were both found dead in their Los Angeles home Monday afternoon. Officers were conducting a welfare check at a home in the Encino neighborhood when they found the bodies of a man and woman with gunshot wounds. An American Idol spokesperson confirmed the deaths of Robin Kaye and her husband, Thomas Deluca, both 70. The couple owned their home, according to public records. Los Angeles police say they are investigating their deaths as homicides but have not identified any suspects. 'Robin has been a cornerstone of the Idol family since 2009 and was truly loved and respected by all who came in contact with her,' an American Idol spokesperson said in a statement. 'Robin will remain in our hearts forever and we share our deepest sympathy with her family and friends during this difficult time.' Kaye, an industry veteran, has also worked in the music departments of several other productions such as 'The Singing Bee,' 'Hollywood Game Night,' 'Lip Sync Battle,' and several Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants.
Associated Press
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
American Idol music supervisor and husband both found dead at LA home
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An American Idol music supervisor and husband were both found dead in their Los Angeles home Monday afternoon. Officers were conducting a welfare check at a home in the Encino neighborhood when they found the bodies of a man and woman with gunshot wounds. An American Idol spokesperson confirmed the deaths of Robin Kaye and her husband, Thomas Deluca, both 70. The couple owned their home, according to public records. Los Angeles police say they are investigating their deaths as homicides but have not identified any suspects. 'Robin has been a cornerstone of the Idol family since 2009 and was truly loved and respected by all who came in contact with her,' an American Idol spokesperson said in a statement. 'Robin will remain in our hearts forever and we share our deepest sympathy with her family and friends during this difficult time.' Kaye, an industry veteran, has also worked in the music departments of several other productions such as 'The Singing Bee,' 'Hollywood Game Night,' 'Lip Sync Battle,' and several Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants.
