Lana Del Rey Cancels Israel Concert Amid BDS Pressure

Lana Del Rey Image by Getty Images
It’s September, and these lyrics have never been more apt: “I got that summertime, summertime sadness, su-su-summertime, summertime sadness.”
Pop maestro Lana Del Rey has caved to weeks of pressure, canceling her plans to headline a concert at an Israeli festival under pressure from critics of Israel. The announcement, which the singer posted Friday on her Facebook page, is the outcome of a drama that has been slowly unfolding since 2014, and mirrors a path Del Rey’s contemporaries have walked before her.
Del Rey’s initial plans to perform in Israel were set long before this summer — 2014. Del Rey was scheduled to perform in Tel Aviv that summer, but canceled citing safety reasons when war broke out in Gaza. The long-delayed performance was rescheduled for this summer, when Del Rey was booked to headline an outdoor music festival in the Northern Galilee.
Though the singer received heavy criticism from fans immediately following this announcement, she posted a statement to her fans insisting that her performance would emphasize peace. “I would like to remind you that performing in Tel Aviv is not a political statement or a commitment to the politics there, just as singing here in California doesn’t mean my views are in alignment w [sic] my current government opinions or sometimes inhuman actions,” she wrote.
Del Rey continued to field complaints from fans and criticism from people like famed anti-Israel musician Roger Waters. She responded to the criticism, saying she planned to add a visit to Palestinian areas to her trip rather than boycott Israel.
Then, on Friday, she posted a note on social media, explaining that she would be “postponing” her appearance at the festival “until a time when I can schedule visits for both my Israeli and Palestinian fans, as well as hopefully other countries in the region.”
This is reminiscent of all the times American stars have refused to perform in Russia until they can also get a booking in Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. (No, it isn’t, that has never happened.) Del Rey uses the language “postponing” and “rescheduling,” but if what she’s waiting for is for the world to accept that Israelis are no less deserving of entertainment than Americans or other Westerners, we’ll be waiting a long time.
Jenny Singer is the deputy lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Britain’s Tate to return Nazi-looted painting to heirs of Jewish art collector
-
Fast Forward 3 sentenced to death for murder of UAE Chabad rabbi
-
Books The White House Seder started in a Pennsylvania basement. Its legacy lives on.
-
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.