English punk-rap duo Bob Vylan appeared to celebrate the assassination of Charlie Kirk during their Amsterdam performance at Club Paradiso on Saturday.
In videos captured by concertgoers and shared across social media, the group’s frontman Bobby Vylan (a stage name for Pascal Robinson-Foster; drummer Bobbie Vylan is the other half of the group) told a cheering crowd, “I want to dedicate this next one to an absolute piece of shit of a human being. The pronouns was/were. [Because] if you talk shit, you will get banged. Rest in piss Charlie Kirk, you piece of shit.”
Their comments in Amsterdam came only days after Kirk was assassinated on Sept. 10. The conservative activist and leader of Turning Point USA was shot and killed while speaking during an event at Utah Valley University hosted by his nonprofit political organization. The Trump ally was fatally struck in the neck by an assassin’s bullet while discussing mass shootings in the United States.
The frontman also repeated calls against the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and encouraged violence against “fascists and Zionists,” per social media accounts. Hanan Herzberger, chairman of the Central Jewish Council of the Netherlands, said in a statement, “The singer Bob Vylan’s call from the stage, ‘Go hunt them in the streets’ is nothing but a call for another pogrom in Amsterdam, like the one we saw last year.”
Bob Vylan garnered backlash earlier this summer over “death to the IDF” chants during their set at Glastonbury, one of the most famous music festivals in the world, that was also broadcast on the BBC. Glastonbury condemned the chant, UTA subsequently dropped Bob Vylan and the U.S. State Department revoked their visas, putting their upcoming North American tour in jeopardy.
The BBC also shared a statement saying the network regretted livestreaming their Glastonbury set, stating “the antisemitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves.”
Of the Glastonbury backlash, Bob Vylan said the duo “are not the story” and argued that they were “being targeted for speaking up.”
At the Club Paradiso venue on Saturday, a Palestinian flag was draped on stage, and the duo shared videos of a post-show protest on their Instagram page.
In a statement shared on its website, Club Paradiso said, “On Saturday, September 13, during his performance at Paradiso, artist Bob Vylan made statements that many experienced as harsh and offensive. Paradiso believes in the power of artistic freedom. Music, and punk in particular, has traditionally been a form of art that amplifies anger, discontent, and injustice without filter. In a world on fire, artists sometimes choose language that sounds confrontational or violent. That is part of artistic expression, but not automatically language that we as a venue endorse.”
The statement continued, “Paradiso shares the outrage and concern regarding the genocidal violence taking place in Gaza. That Bob Vylan raises his voice against it is legitimate and necessary. Should the Openbaar Ministerie (public prosecution service) wish to investigate whether any criminal offenses have been committed, Paradiso will cooperate.”
