Dua Lipa denies firing agent over pro-Israel views

Pop star Dua Lipa has denied media reports that she fired one of her agents, after he tried to stop the Irish band Kneecap performing at Glastonbury.

The Mail Online claimed that Lipa had parted ways with David Levy for signing a letter urging festival organiser Emily Eavis to drop the rap group over their pro-Palestinian views.

Both Lipa and her talent agency WME have called the story “categorically false”, saying that Levy stopped working with the star in 2019.

In a statement, Lipa criticised Levy’s attempt to silence Kneecap, but said the Mail’s “deliberately inflammatory” story had been “crafted… to fuel online division”.

“I do not condone the actions of David Levy or other music executives toward an artist speaking their truth,” she wrote on her Instagram story.

“I also cannot ignore how this has been handled in the press. Not only was the story completely false but the language used by the Daily Mail has been deliberately inflammatory, crafted purely for clickbait, clearly designed to fuel online division.

“It is always Free Palestine,” she added, “but exploiting a global tragedy in order to sell newspapers is something I find deeply troubling.”

In a separate statement, WME told the BBC: “Reports suggesting that Dua Lipa or her management dismissed one of our agents because of his political views are categorically false”.

Acknowledging that Levy had played a role in Lipa’s “early career”, it said he had remained part of her team “in an advisory role” until “earlier this year” when he moved to other projects.

The Mail has since updated its story to reflect those statements, while also correcting an earlier error that claimed Levy was Lipa’s manager.

The singer’s father, Dukagjin Lipa, has been her manager since 2022.

Kneecap’s performance at Glastonbury went ahead in June, despite politicians calling for the band to be dropped from the bill.

One of the trio, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, has been charged with a terrorism offence after allegedly displaying a flag representing Hezbollah, a proscribed organisation, at a gig last year.

The musician denies the charge. In interviews, he has said the flag was thrown onto the stage and he picked it up without realising what it represented.

He is due back in court this Friday, to hear whether the charges will proceed to a trial.

The outcry also prompted a group of music industry executives to petition Glastonbury over the Kneecap’s appearance.

The band’s producer, Toddla T, claimed festival organisers Michael and Emily Eavis had received a “private and confidential” letter from a “very systemically powerful music agent” urging them to reconsider the band’s booking.

Levy was allegedly one of the signatories.

During their set in June, the Belfast trio led the crowd in chants of “Free Palestine” and made expletive-laden references to prime minister Keir Starmer, who had previously said it was “not appropriate” for them to play the festival.

Concerns over the band’s political statements also prompted the BBC to drop a live stream of their performance, although it was later made available on iPlayer with minimal cuts.

Dua Lipa has also made her views on the conflict in Gaza public, and had repeatedly called for a “humanitarian cease-fire”.

In May this year, she condemned Israeli air-strikes on displacement camps in Southern Gaza.

“Burning children alive can never be justified,” she wrote on Instagram. “The whole world is mobilising to stop the Israeli genocide. Please show your solidarity with Gaza.”

Later that month, she joined stars such as Benedict Cumberbatch, Gary Lineker, Amelia Dimoldenberg and Riz Ahmed in demanding that the UK stop selling arms to Israel.

“We urge you to take immediate action to end the UK’s complicity in the horrors in Gaza,” they said via an open letter, organised by the refugee charity Choose Love.

“You can’t call it ‘intolerable’, yet do nothing. The world is watching and history will not forget. The children of Gaza cannot wait another minute. Prime minister, what will you choose? Complicity in war crimes, or the courage to act?”

More than 65,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza in the nearly two-year war, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Israel denies all allegations that its conduct in Gaza has broken the treaties and conventions that make up the laws of war and international humanitarian law.

It justifies its actions as self-defence, in protection of its citizens and to force the release of the hostages taken by Hamas and Islamic Jihad on 7 October 2023, around 20 of whom are believed still to be alive.

However, last week a UN commission of inquiry said that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the UK, France, Canada and Australia formally recognised a Palestinian state at a meeting of the United Nations earlier this week.