{"id":253565,"date":"2025-10-26T23:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T23:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/253565\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T23:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T23:54:11","slug":"radioheads-thom-yorke-says-he-would-absolutely-not-perform-in-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/253565\/","title":{"rendered":"Radiohead\u2019s Thom Yorke says he would \u2018absolutely not\u2019 perform in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Radiohead<\/a> singer Thom Yorke has said he would no longer perform in Israel after the band came under scrutiny<\/a> for playing in Tel Aviv in 2017.<\/p>\n

In an interview with British newspaper The Sunday Times<\/a>, conducted before the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was agreed, Yorke said he would \u201cabsolutely not\u201d perform in Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to be 5,000 miles anywhere near the Netanyahu regime but Jonny has roots there,\u201d he told the publication, in reference to Radiohead\u2019s lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood.<\/p>\n

CNN is reaching out to the Israeli prime minister\u2019s office for comment.<\/p>\n

Greenwood told the Sunday Times he \u201cpolitely\u201d disagreed with Yorke.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would argue that the government is more likely to use a boycott and say, \u2018Everyone hates us \u2014 we should do exactly what we want.\u2019 Which is far more dangerous,\u201d Greenwood said.<\/p>\n

Greenwood said the only thing he is ashamed of is dragging his bandmates \u201cinto this mess.\u201d He added, \u201cBut I\u2019m not ashamed of working with Arab and Jewish musicians. I can\u2019t apologize for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Radiohead<\/p>\n

Radiohead Performs in Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival on April 14, 2017, in Indio, California. – Valerie Macon\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Radiohead came under fire <\/a>for performing in Tel Aviv during its \u201cA Moon Shaped Pool\u201d world tour, which ran from 2016 to 2018. At the time, the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) organization urged Radiohead to boycott Israel over its conduct in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Last year, Yorke<\/a> took off his guitar and left the stage during his solo concert in Melbourne, Australia, after being heckled by a pro-Palestinian protester.<\/p>\n

Radiohead will soon start their first tour in seven years, playing shows across Europe in November and December. Asked by The Sunday Times if he was concerned this tour could be targeted by protesters, Yorke responded, \u201cAre you f**king joking?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they don\u2019t care about us. It\u2019s about getting something on Instagram of something dramatic happening,\u201d he told The Sunday Times.<\/p>\n

Yorke said he didn\u2019t believe Israel should be allowed to participate in the Eurovision song contest, but added, \u201cBut I don\u2019t think Eurovision should do Eurovision. So what do I know?\u201d<\/p>\n

Eurovision is a major annual international music competition featuring countries from the European Broadcasting Union. Israel has been competing in the contest since 1973 and calls for its exclusion have intensified<\/a> in the wake of the war on Gaza.<\/p>\n

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Radiohead singer Thom Yorke has said he would no longer perform in Israel after the band came under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,803,82783,216,47263,46767],"class_list":{"0":"post-253565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-jonny-greenwood","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-radiohead","13":"tag-thom-yorke"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}