An upcoming Bob Vylan gig in in the Netherlands has been cancelled after frontman Bobby Vylan was accused of celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Kirk, a close ally of President Donald Trump and a highly controversial political personality, was fatally shot while attending a Utah Valley University event last week (September 10). Following the shooting – which authorities described as a targeted assassination – punk-rap duo Bob Vylan performed in Amsterdam, where they dedicated the song ‘CSGB’ to the late Kirk.
In a clip that has since made the rounds on social media, the frontman told the crowd gathered at the Paradiso Grote Zaal: “I wanna dedicate this next one to an absolute piece of shit of a human being. The pronouns was/were. ‘Cos if you chat shit, you will get banged. Rest in piss, Charlie Kirk, you piece of shit.”
Now, the duo’s gig at the 013 venue in Tilburg tomorrow (September 16) has been cancelled, with the venue saying the statements made by him “go too far”.
Infamous rap duo Bob Vylan known for his “Death to the IDF!” chant at Glastonbury dedicated a song to Charlie Kirk, calling him “an absolute piece of shit of a human being” pic.twitter.com/W42AdwSS4M
— HOT SPOT (@HotSpotHotSpot) September 14, 2025
A translated statement on their website clarified that the reason for the cancellation was the comments made during the show at Paradiso. “Despite the controversy that arose after their Glastonbury performance, 013 decided to let Bob Vylan perform in Tilburg,” they said.
Their Worthy Farm slot saw them call for a free Palestine, call out the UK government for its “complicity” in the “massacre” of innocent Palestinians, and led chants of “death, death to the IDF” and anti-Zionism.
The subsequent fallout led to the duo dropped by their agency, as well as having their US visas revoked. They are currently under criminal investigation over the performance, and have spoken out to defend it numerous times now. They’ve claimed it was vital to “teach our children to speak up for the change they want”, and reiterated that they were calling for the “dismantling of a violent military machine” – not calling for “the death of Jews or Arabs or any other race or group”.
The Tillberg venue said it had an “understanding for the artist’s anger” in response to increasing violence from Israel, “a situation that deserves our full attention, even though his words were not our own”.
“We still share that shock and outrage. Moreover, Bob Vylan clarified in his own statement that his earlier statement ‘death to the IDF’ was not an anti-Semitic slogan, but rather criticism of the Israeli army.”
The update continued: “013 wanted to send a message that Gaza deserves full attention and that outrage about it deserves a place on stage. We still stand by that. However, we believe the statements Bob Vylan made last night at Paradiso clearly cross a line. We strongly reject the trivialisation of political murder and the call to “go look for people on the streets.”
The comments the venue referred to saw Bobby encourage fans to stand up to Zionists and lead chants of “death to the IDF” at the show. “Fuck the fascists, fuck the Zionists, go find them and meet them in the streets,” he said. “Find them and let them know you don’t fucking stand by them. Death, death to the IDF.”
In light of those comments, 013 said while they understood they were “made in the context of punk and activism” they felt hosting them as performers was untenable. They said they appreciated “that the reporting on them is sometimes less nuanced than what actually happened” buy “nevertheless believe that these new statements go too far. They no longer fall within the boundaries of what we can offer a stage.”
On Sunday (September 14), Vylan shared a video denying they had celebrated Kirk’s death. “I did call him a piece of shit, that much is true,” he said, “but at no point was his death celebrated.”
Charlie Kirk – an advocate for conservative ideologies and Trump’s MAGA movement – was often seen as a controversial figure in politics. He publicly opposed gun control laws, once saying: “It’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.”
Kirk also opposed abortion laws, admitting that he would force his teenage daughter to give birth if she were hypothetically raped and impregnated. Elsewhere over the last two years, Kirk has been vocal about his stance on Black people in America, Islam, immigrants, gender and feminism.
In January last year, Kirk said on his podcast: “If I’m dealing with somebody in customer service who’s a moronic Black woman, I wonder is she there because of her excellence, or is she there because of affirmative action?”
On the topic of Taylor Swift’s engagement to Travis Kelce, Kirk said last month: “It’s a great chance for Taylor Swift now to get married and have a ton of children. You can certainly afford it, Taylor… All kidding and sarcasm aside, this is something that I hope will make Taylor Swift more conservative. Engage in reality more and get outside of the abstract clouds.
“Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You’re not in charge.”
Last month, he also weighed in on immigration in the US, saying: “America was at its peak when we halted immigration for 40 years and we dropped our foreign-born percentage to its lowest level ever. We should be unafraid to do that.”
Kirk, a vocal and evangelical Christian also argued that the country should be weary of the spread of Islam: “America has freedom of religion, of course, but we should be frank: large dedicated Islamic areas are a threat to America.” He also championed Israel in the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict, arguing that “Palestine does not exist.”
Additionally, he founded TPUSA Faith in 2021, which “exists to unite the church around primary doctrine and to eliminate wokeism from the American pulpit,” according to its website.
As for Bob Vylan’s future live dates, they duo recently announced a series of UK headline dates for 2025 – check out the full list of dates here, and get tickets here.