TV personality and music industry legend Sharon Osbourne has criticised the organisers of the 2025 Coachella music festival after an Irish hip-hop group projected an anti-Israel slogan during its set.
During its performance at the second weekend of the festival in Southern California, nationalist rap trio Kneecap projected slogans such as “F*** Israel, Free Palestine” on screen and accused Israel of genocide.
In a lengthy post on social media, Osbourne, who has been a judge on America’s Got Talent and The X Factor, called on her followers to join her in “advocating for the revocation of Kneecap's work visa” to the US.
"Coachella 2025 will be remembered as a festival that compromised its moral and spiritual integrity,” she wrote, adding: “Kneecap, an Irish rap group, took their performance to a different level by incorporating aggressive political statements.
"Their actions included projections of anti-Israel messages and hate speech, and this band openly support terrorist organisations.
"This behaviour raises concerns about the appropriateness of their participation in such a festival and further shows they are booked to play in the USA.”
Osbourne, whose father is Jewish, also criticised Goldenvoice, Coachella’s organiser, for its part in booking the band, saying: “Goldenvoice...facilitated this by allowing artists to use the Coachella stage as a platform for political expression.
"Reports indicate that Goldenvoice was unaware of Kneecap's political intentions when they were booked.
"However, after witnessing their performance during the first weekend, allowing them to perform again the following weekend suggests support of their rhetoric and a lack of due diligence.”
During Kneecap's performance at the festival’s first weekend, the band did mention Palestine but later took to social media to allege that their performance was “censored”.
Responding to an article that claimed the band’s stream was cut after it led an anti-Thatcher chant, Kneecap wrote on X: “Not the only thing that was cut - our messaging on the US-backed genocide in Gaza somehow never appeared on screens either. Back next Friday Coachella and it’ll be sorted.”
In her post, Osbourne noted that Scooter Braun – who has previously staged exhibitions about Hamas’ attack on the Nova festival on October 7 – defended Goldenvoice CEO Paul Tollett, as the festival organiser was one of the first industry figures to attend the opening of his LA site.
"If Tollett visited the Nova exhibit, he would have seen the portraits of every person that was killed that day and heard some of their voices on cell phone recordings, sent home to their loved ones,” Osbourne wrote, adding that it’s “difficult to comprehend” how somebody who saw the exhibit first-hand could go on to book a band like Kneecap.
"The Independent Artists Group, which represents Kneecap, includes individuals of Jewish heritage. It is disheartening that they have not used their positions to prevent the promotion of such controversial messages.
"As someone with both Irish Catholic on my Mothers side and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage on my Fathers side, and extensive experience in the music industry, I understand the complexities involved.
"I urge you to join me in advocating for the revocation of Kneeecap's work visa,” she concluded.
The Hollywood Reporter reported that Tollett was “blindsided” by Kneecap’s actions.
Ari Ingel, the executive director of the Creative Community for Peace, a nonprofit comprised of entertainment industry professionals, has now also called on venues to boycott the band and called for its members’ visas to be revoked.
"Festivals such as Coachella are meant to bring people together to celebrate music and life,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “Instead they allowed the festival to devolve into a forum of hate — platforming a band that praised a terrorist group that carried out the largest massacre in music history.”
During the band’s Coachella performance, Kneecap frontman Mo Chara said: “Palestinians have nowhere to go. This is their f***ing home, and they’re being bombed from the sky. If you’re not calling it a genocide, what the f*** are you calling it?”
The group then led the audience in a chant of “Free, free Palestine.”
