Bob Vylan denies celebrating Charlie Kirk's death; Tilburg show canceled, Nijmegen not

Bob Vylan posted a video on X in which frontman Bobby Vylan denies celebrating the death of American right-wing activist Charlie Kirk during a performance at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, as the Telegraaf reported he did. The police received around 30 reports about anti-Zionist chants at Vylan’s show. The British punk-rap duo’s performance at 013 in Tilburg got canceled as a result of the commotion around the Amsterdam show, but the show in Doornroosje in Nijmegen will continue as planned.

The Telegraaf reported that in the Paridisio performance, Bobby Vylan shouted: “Fuck the fascists, fuck the Zionists. Find them on the streets.” He added that they aren’t anti-Semites, but anti-Zionists. According to the Telegraaf, Bob Vylan also celebrated Charlie Kirk’s assassination in the United States last week.

In the video on X, Bobby Vylan did not address the anti-Zionist chants, but did deny celebrating Kirk’s death. “At no point whatsoever did we celebrate Charlie Kirk’s death. I did call him a piece of shit. That much is true. But at no point was his death celebrated.”

According to Bobby Vylan, one reporter came to the show with the sole purpose of finding something to report. “And after I called him a piece of shit and we played a song, they have written that up as a celebration. Not a celebration, isn’t a celebration, wasn’t a celebration. Calm down.”

A police spokesperson told AT5 that they received around 30 reports bout the show on Sunday morning, and the number is rising. The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) posted a call on social media to report Bob Vylan for “incitement to hatred and violence.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), a Jewish human rights organization, released a statement condemning the Amsterdam authorities for “failing to issue an unequivocal denunciation and decisive action” after the Bob Vylan concert.

“Celebrating a political assassination from a taxpayer-supported stage crosses every red line of decency and safety,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the SWC. “Amsterdam’s mayor offered generalized remarks about limits to artistic freedom. That is not an adequate response to a performer who glorified murder and whipped up a crowd with rhetoric that Jewish communities recognize as incitement.”

Due to the commotion around the Amsterdam show, Pop venue 013 in Tilburg decided to cancel the Byb Vylan performance scheduled there on Tuesday. “While we understand that the statements were made in the context of punk and activism, and that the reporting on this is sometimes less nuanced than what actually happened, we still believe these statements go too far,” the venue told ANP. “For us, they no longer fall within the boundaries of what we can offer a stage.”

The Bob Vylan show in Doornroosje in Nijmegen on Monday will continue as planned. “We were overwhelmed by the scale of the uproar that arose following Bob Vylan’s show last Saturday at Pardiso. Following the statements made during the concert at Paradiso, we have been unable to determine whether any criminal offenses were committed. Therefore, we will not be revoking our decision to book the act,” the Nijmegen venue said, according to NU.nl.

“Doornroosje believes in the social importance of a free pop culture. Our stages are also a place of freedom of speech, artistic expression, and social dialogue.”

Paradiso also released a statement saying that it believes in the power of artistic freedom. “Music - and especially punk - is an art form that traditionally magnifies anger, discontent, and injustice without a filter. In a world on fire, artists sometimes choose language that sounds confrontational or violent. That’s part of the expression, but not automatically words we, as a venue, endorse.”

The Amsterdam venue added that it shares the outrage and concern surrounding the genocide in Gaza, and Paradiso considers it “legitimate and necessary” for Bob Vylan to speak out against it. “Should the Public Prosecution Service wish to investigate whether criminal offenses have been committed, Paradiso will cooperate.”