THE number of people listening to Kneecap has soared in the past week and the band have entered the charts for the first time in several countries.
Following ten days of hostile stories about the rappers, their popularity continues to grow across the world as they win over legions of new fans.
On Tuesday the band's manager, Daniel Lambert, said the trio are being targeted by a "concerted campaign" designed to silence artists who speak out about the situation in Gaza.
After displaying messages of support for Palestine during their performance at major US festival Coachella, a video emerged from a November 2023 gig appearing to show one member saying: "The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP." Other footage also circulated online from an event in November 2024 which showed a member of the band shouting "up Hamas, up Hezbollah."
Despite an apology from Kneecap, their planned performance at a number of gigs, including one in Cornwall and three shows in Germany have been cancelled.
However, the unprecedented criticism heaped on the band has only raised their profile around the world.
This week, Kneecap's album 'Fine Art' entered the iTunes chart in Italy, Brazil and Germany for the first time. Not only that but the band's monthly listeners on Spotify has also grown from 100,000 to 1.1 million.
Speaking on RTÉ Prime Time about the recent controversy, Kneecap’s manager, Daniel Lambert said: "At every point, the band members have the absolute conviction that they are doing the right thing and they stand on the right side of history.
"A video didn't emerge. There was a concerted campaign emanating from the US to analyse every single thing that Kneecap has ever said.
"Why this happened was because of what they said at Coachella, and what they said at Coachella was the right thing to say. It's something we've said at Leeds, Reading, Glastonbury, in Dublin, in Belfast.
The band's manager questioned why a band were being held to "higher moral account" than politicians who are "ignoring" international law.
"Why are the Palestinians where they are today? They’re where they are because there’s been a wholesale denial of their rights as human beings," he added.
Addressing the 'Kill your MP' video, Daniel continued: "The idea that that was incitement of violence against an MP is ludicrous. It was taken entirely out of context.
"They are performers, it was part of a performance. If you were to look at dozens of comedians globally, and take six words out of a comedy act and then lay it out, you could do that to dozens of people."
Asked if the band were worried about their upcoming performance at Glastonbury festival, Mr Lambert said: "It's not for us to worry. It's for us to have the strength and conviction that we did the right thing.
"What led to this campaign is the reaction of young people in America — young people who aren’t willing to support a genocide and who have empathy and sympathy for the Palestinian people.
"It’s solely about deplatforming artists. It’s about telling the next young band — through the music industry and through the political class — that you cannot speak about Palestine."
