August 22, 2024: Móglaí Bap, Dj Provaí, and Mo Chara of Kneecap attend a preview and Q&A for "Kneecap" at BFI Southbank in London, England.Getty Images

Kneecap, the Irish language hip-hop trio from Belfast who has been the focus of heated discussion over the past two weeks, has seen a bump on the music charts following their "F--k Israel, Free Palestine" messaging at Coachella.

Weekly volumes - that is, sales and streams combined - of Kneecap's latest album "Fine Art" have more than doubled in the UK, Official Charts reported on Friday, May 2, two weeks on from Kneecap's second Coachella gig.

The album's volumes have soared by 103% over the last seven days, Official Charts added.

"Overall, the band have generated 1.6 million streams across their catalogue over the past seven days, which represents a 62% rise week-on-week.

"The two biggest songs of their career to date, 'H.O.O.D' and Better 'Way to Live,' saw respective week-on-week increases of 58% and 53%."

Meanwhile, Billboard reported on Wednesday that Kneecap's weekly US streams nearly doubled after their second Coachella performance.

"In the week prior to the first weekend of Coachella (Apr. 4-10), Kneecap’s US on-demand streams totaled 431,000 across its catalog; two weeks later, that number reached 852,000 streams, a 97% increase, according to Luminate," Billboard reported.

"Interestingly, those streams have continued to rise post-Coachella, as the discourse around the group’s comments has persisted more than a week after the festival’s final weekend concluded."

Meanwhile, Kneecap rose 17 spots on streaming platform Spotify's 'Weekly Top Artists - Ireland' list for the week of April 25 - May 1. This comes after rising nine spots the week prior.

Read more

Kneecap's bump in the charts comes amidst the continued controversy following the Irish language hip hop group's messaging at Coachella two weeks ago.

At the close of their set - the group's second at Coachella, having also performed a week earlier - they projected a message on the stage that said: "Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.

"It is being enabled by the US government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes.

"F--k Israel. Free Palestine."

Also during the set, Kneecap member Mo Chara told the huge audience: "The Irish not so long ago were persecuted at the hands of the Brits, but we were never bombed from the f--king skies with nowhere to go.

"The Palestinians have nowhere to go. It's their f--king home and they're bombing them from the skies.

"If you're not calling it a genocide, what the f--k are you calling it?"

Amidst cheers from the crowd, Mo Chara then led the audience in chants of "Free, free Palestine."

Kneecap was reportedly dropped by their booking agent in between the first and second weekend of Coachella, which is understood to have threatened their work visas.

The Belfast-based Irish language hip hop trio said they received "hundreds of violent Zionist threats" following their Coachella gig, with their manager Daniel Lambert later telling RTÉ that the group received death threats.

As the controversy bubbled, a video from November 2024 re-emerged of the group saying on stage, "up Hamas, up Hezbollah," while a separate video from April 2023 shows the band saying, "the only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP!” 

Both instances were during gigs in the UK.

Read more

In a statement on April 25, Kneecap said they were "taking action" after what they described as a "smear campaign" following their Coachella gig.

In another statement issued on Monday, Kneecap said they 'unequivocally' do not support Hamas or Hezbollah and never have.

They also apologized to the families of Conservative MP Andrew Amess, who was murdered in 2021, and Labour MP Jo Cox, who was murdered in 2016.

Monday's statement concluded: "Suddenly, days after calling out the US administration at Coachella to applause and solidarity, there is an avalanche of outrage and condemnation by the political classes of Britain.

"The real crimes are not in our performances; the real crimes are the silence and complicity of those in power.

"Shame on them."

Read more

On Wednesday, 40 music acts, including the likes of Christy Moore and Damien Dempsey, signed their names to a letter issued by Heavenly Recordings in support of Kneecap, saying in part, "We stand for freedom of expression."

The statement was issued the same day that Eden Sessions, a music festival in Cornwall, announced that Kneecap had been dropped from its lineup this July. This comes among calls, including from British politicians, for Kneecap to be dropped from other music festivals, including Glastonbury and TRNSMT.

On Friday, it was reported that more than 100 people had signed the "freedom of expression" letter.

The day after the letter began to circulate, the UK's Metropolitan Police confirmed that two videos of Kneecap "were referred to the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit for assessment by specialist officers, who have determined there are grounds for further investigation into potential offences linked to both videos."

The investigation is being carried out by officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, and inquiries remain ongoing, police said on Thursday.