Singer Lana Del Rey has defended her decision to perform in Israel saying she believes music is for everyone and should be used to bring people “together”.
The singer is scheduled to perform at Israel’s first-ever Meteor Festival alongside musicians like ASAP Ferg, Pusha T and Of Montreal.
“I believe music is universal and should be used to bring us together Performing in Tel Aviv is not a political statement or a commitment to the politics there just like singing here in California doesn’t mean my views are in alignment with my current governments opinions or sometimes inhuman actions,” she wrote on Twitter.
Del Rey added she is planning to perform “with a loving energy with a thematic emphasis on peace.”
Headlining the festival will be Del Rey’s performance in Israel. Some 15,000 are set to gather at Kibbutz Lehavot Habashan, outside of Tiberias in the upper Galilee region of Israel, from September 6 through 8 to see 50-plus acts including local artistes like Noga Erez, Balkan Beat Box, Geva Alon and Hadag Nahash.
Human rights advocates have called for performers to boycott playing in Israel as a way to protest its government’s treatment of Palestinians, a call many musicians and artistes have heeded as of late. Earlier this year Lorde and Natalie Portman declined to travel to Tel Aviv to play a concert and receive the nation’s prestigious Genesis Prize, respectively.
