Pop singer Dua Lipa reportedly drops Jewish agent who urged Kneecap’s removal from Glastonbury
Several other British artists, including trip hop group Massive Attack, have also signed onto an initiative to have their music blocked from streaming in Israel
Dua Lipa attends Paris Fashion Week on July 7 in Paris, France. Photo by Arnold Jerocki/Getty Images
(JTA) — British pop singer Dua Lipa has reportedly dropped her Jewish agent for signing onto a letter to remove the pro-Palestinian Irish rap group Kneecap from the Glastonbury music festival.
The development comes as a growing number of musical acts are seeking to block streaming services from letting their songs play in Israel, in what they hope will turn into a music-industry cognate of the burgeoning Film Works for Palestine boycott of Israeli film institutions.
Dua Lipa’s longstanding agent, David Levy, was one of the first signatories on a leaked letter to Glastonbury’s organizers to remove Kneecap, whose singer is currently facing terrorism charges in the United Kingdom for allegedly displaying a Hezbollah flag at a concert.
The Grammy Award-winning performer will continue to be represented by her current talent agency, William Morris Endeavor, but with a different agent there, according to the Daily Mail.
“Dua made sure through her people that David Levy wasn’t working on her music any more. She is very openly pro-Palestine and that doesn’t align with David,” a music industry source told The Mail on Sunday.
“She views him as being a supporter of Israel’s war in Gaza, and the terrible treatment of the Palestinians and that was made very clear through the letter that he signed and sent to Michael Eavis,” the source continued.
Dua Lipa has long been critical of Israel, and in May was one of more than 300 celebrities who signed onto a letter to U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer urging him to end the country’s “complicity” in Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
The singer’s parting with her agent comes as several other British artists, including trip hop group Massive Attack and Kneecap, have joined an initiative to block their music from being streamed in Israel.
Massive Attack also announced last Thursday that they had asked their label to remove their songs from Spotify over the streaming platform’s investments in a European defense start-up.
The defense company, Helsing, said in a statement that its technologies were not being used outside of Europe.
“We’d appeal to all musicians to transfer their sadness, anger and artistic contributions into a coherent, reasonable and vital action to end the unspeakable hell being visited upon the Palestinians hour after hour,” the group wrote in an Instagram post Thursday.
Kneecap, meanwhile, has been banned from Canada over its member’s terrorism charges; it recently canceled a sold-out U.S. tour.
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