nsfs
Page: 15
As wildfires continue to threaten Los Angeles amid dangerous “red flag” conditions, the boutique bank Raine has announced that its Grammy Week event will be reframed as a fundraiser for music professionals affected by the massive Palisades and Eaton blazes.
The event, to be held on Jan. 30 at the San Vicente Bungalows in West Hollywood from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., will be co-hosted by Raine, the National Music Publishers’ Association, and music industry publications Music Business Worldwide and HITS. Donations will go to the Recording Academy and MusiCares’ Los Angeles Fire Relief Effort supporting music workers impacted by the disasters. Those interested in attending are being asked to donate a minimum of $250, which can be done at the event’s RSVP page. Questions can be directed to wildfirefundraiser@raine.com.
Raine partner Fred Davis says they chose to turn the event into a fundraiser — rather than cancel it altogether — to make the most of the attendees’ “enormously charitable” nature.
“So many in our music community have been devastated by their losses. It hurts,” Davis tells Billboard. “I have grown up in this industry. I have a responsibility to help.”
The Raine event would have been the music and entertainment industry-focused bank’s second Grammy Week cocktail party, but invitations went out one day before the Palisades Fire broke out on Jan. 7. That blaze went on to destroy more than 6,600 buildings and homes across more than 23,000 acres, while 11 people lost their lives. The Eaton Fire, which started later the same day in Altadena, is estimated to have destroyed more than 9,000 structures and killed 17. Both of those fires continue to burn but are nearing full containment, though a newer blaze, the Hughes Fire, exploded on Wednesday (Jan. 22) north of L.A. and prompted widespread evacuations in the Castaic Lake region. It has since burned more than 10,000 acres and is at 24% containment.
Notably, the Raine event is one of the few to remain on the Grammy Week calendar in the wake of the wildfires, with the majority of the major bashes either canceled or postponed. Those that remain, including the annual MusiCares Person of the Year and Clive Davis Galas put on by the Recording Academy, have similarly been re-spun as fundraisers for wildfire relief.
The Grammys themselves, which are still scheduled to be held on Feb. 2 at Crypto.com arena in Downtown Los Angeles, will go forward, according to academy, “with a renewed sense of purpose: raising additional funds to support wildfire relief efforts and honoring the bravery and dedication of first responders who risk their lives to protect ours.”
Longtime booking agent Scott Pang passed away on Thursday (Jan. 23) after suffering from a cardiac arrest. He was 69 years old. “He loved what he did and he was always on the phone,” his son Thompson Pang tells Billboard. “He knew so many people, it was crazy.” Pang was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on […]
A teenager who stabbed three young girls to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England was sentenced Thursday to more than 50 years in prison for what a judge called “the most extreme, shocking and exceptionally serious crime.”
Judge Julian Goose said 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana “wanted to try and carry out mass murder of innocent, happy young girls.”
Goose said that he couldn’t impose a sentence of life without parole, because Rudakubana was under 18 when he committed the crime.
But the judge said he must serve 52 years, minus the six months he’s been in custody, before being considered for parole, and “it is likely he will never be released.”
Rudakubana was 17 when he attacked the children in the seaside town of Southport in July, killing Alice Da Silva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6. He wounded eight other girls, ranging in age from 7 to 13, along with teacher Leanne Lucas and John Hayes, a local businessman who intervened.
The attack shocked the country and set off both street violence and soul-searching. The government has announced a public inquiry into how the system failed to stop the killer, who had been referred to the authorities multiple times over his obsession with violence.
Defendant disrupts the hearing
Rudakubana faced three counts of murder, 10 of attempted murder and additional charges of possessing a knife, the poison ricin and an al-Qaida manual. He unexpectedly changed his plea to guilty on all charges on Monday.
But he wasn’t in court to hear sentence passed on Thursday.
Hours earlier he had been led into the dock at Liverpool Crown Court in northwest England, dressed in a gray prison tracksuit. But as prosecutors began outlining the evidence, Rudakubana interrupted by shouting that he felt ill and wanted to see a paramedic.
Goose ordered the accused to be removed when he continued shouting. A person in the courtroom shouted “Coward!” as Rudakubana was taken out.
The hearing continued without him.
Horror on a summer day
Prosecutor Deanna Heer described how the attack occurred on the first day of summer vacation when 26 little girls were “gathered around the tables making bracelets and singing along to Taylor Swift songs.”
Rudakubana, armed with a large knife, intruded and began stabbing the girls and their teacher.
The court was shown video of the suspect arriving at the Hart Space venue in a taxi and entering the building. Within seconds, screams erupted and children ran outside in panic, some of them wounded. One girl made it to the doorway, but was pulled back inside by the attacker. She was stabbed 32 times but survived.
Gasps and sobs could be heard in court as the videos played.
Heer said two of the dead children “suffered particularly horrific injuries which are difficult to explain as anything other than sadistic in nature.” One of the dead girls had 122 injuries, while another suffered 85 wounds.
A teenager obsessed with violence
The prosecutor said Rudakubana had “a longstanding obsession with violence, killing, genocide.”
“His only purpose was to kill. And he targeted the youngest and most vulnerable in society,” she said, as relatives of the victims watched on in the courtroom.
Heer said that when he was taken to a police station, Rudakubana was heard to say: “It’s a good thing those children are dead, I’m so glad, I’m so happy.”
The killings triggered days of anti-immigrant violence across the country after far-right activists seized on incorrect reports that the attacker was an asylum-seeker who had recently arrived in the U.K. Some suggested the crime was a jihadi attack, and alleged that police and the government were withholding information.
Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, Wales, to Christian parents from Rwanda, and investigators haven’t been able to pin down his motivation. Police found documents about subjects including Nazi Germany, the Rwandan genocide and car bombs on his devices.
In the years before the attack, he had been reported to multiple authorities over his violent interests and actions. All of the agencies failed to spot the danger he posed.
In 2019, he phoned a children’s advice line to ask “What should I do if I want to kill somebody?” He said he had taken a knife to school because he wanted to kill someone who was bullying him. Two months later, he attacked a fellow student with a hockey stick and was convicted of assault.
The definition of terrorism
Prosecutors said Rudakubana was referred three times to the government’s anti-extremism program, Prevent, when he was 13 and 14 — once after researching school shootings in class, then for uploading pictures of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to Instagram and for researching a London terror attack.
But they concluded his crimes should not be classed as terrorism because Rudakubana had no discernable political or religious cause. Heer said “his purpose was the commission of mass murder, not for a particular end, but as an end in itself.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week the country must face up to a “new threat” from violent individuals whose mix of motivations test the traditional definition of terrorism.
“After one of the most harrowing moments in our country’s history, we owe it to these innocent young girls and all those affected to deliver the change that they deserve,” Starmer said after the sentencing.
Wrenching testimony from victims
Several relatives and survivors read emotional statements in court, describing how the attack had shattered their lives.
Lucas, 36, who ran the dance class, said that “the trauma of being both a victim and a witness has been horrendous.”
“I cannot give myself compassion or accept praise, as how can I live knowing I survived when children died?” she said.
A 14-year-old survivor, who can’t be named because of a court order, said that while she was physically recovering. “we will all have to live with the mental pain from that day forever.”
“I hope you spend the rest of your life knowing that we think you’re a coward,” she said.
The prosecutor read out a statement from the parents of Alice Da Silva Aguiar, who said their daughter’s killing had “shattered our souls.”
“We used to cook for three. Now we only cook for two. It doesn’t seem right,” they said. “Alice was our purpose for living, so what do we do now?”
This story was originally published by The Associated Press.
One of the survivors of the Oct. 7, 2023 invasion and massacre of Israelis by Hamas forces will represent her county at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. According to The Hollywood Reporter, 24-year-old aspiring singer Yuval Raphael — who escaped the mass killing of hundreds at Israel’s Nova Music Festival — punched her card this week to sing for her nation at this year’s contest in Basel, Switzerland after she won the 11th season of Israel’s singing competition Rising Star. The victory resulted in her being tapped to represent Israel at the global sing-off.
Previous Eurovision representatives from Israel who went on to Eurovision after winning the show include Israeli singer Netta, who won Eurovision in 2018; pop stars Noa Kirel and Eden Golan finished in third and fifth place, respectively, over the last two years.
According to THR, Raphael won Rising Star on Wednesday (Jan. 22) after performing a stripped-down version of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen,” a nod to the Swedish pop supergroup that blew up after their 1974 Eurovision win; she also performed a cover of Sam Smith’s 2015 Oscar-winning song James Bond Spectre track “Writing’s on the Wall.”
In addition to praising her vocal abilities, the show’s judges said Raphael’s gripping personal story of surviving the massacre resonated with them. The singer described running away from the EDM festival and taking cover inside a public bomb shelter outside of Kibbutz Be’eri, where she hid in a cramped cement bunker, trapped under dead bodies as she herself played dead for more than eight hours to escape being murdered by Hamas invaders.
The singer who is fluent in English, French and her native Hebrew, was rescued by the father of another Nova attendee, who drove into the battle zone to save his daughter, and others’, lives. “Every time we [those who were still alive] raised our heads, we couldn’t understand why there were less and less people in the bomb shelter,” Raphael said in a March 2024 speech in front of the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of the Jerusalem Institute of Justice. “We thought the terrorists were taking the dead bodies. We didn’t realize it was because of the grenades, blowing up their bodies.”
Raphael has been an advocate for Israel over the past year and has said that she hopes, “the world will hear a first-person account of what I went through and have been dealing with every day, so no one could claim otherwise.” The Oct. 7 assault in which Hamas militants killed, sexually assaulted and abused more than 1,200 mostly civilian Israelis and took 251 hostages led to a nearly three-year war between Israel and Hamas that ended over the weekend thanks to a tenuous ceasefire.
The world’s biggest music event — which regularly draws 200 million viewers in more than 40 countries — is headed into its 69th year. Typically averse to any displays of political speech or nationalism, the European Broadcasting Union defended the inclusion of an Israeli contestant last year in the midst of the war that Palestinian authorities said resulted in the death of more than 46,000 residents of Gaza. As some called for Israeli contestant Eden Golan to be left off the stage in much the same way that Russia was uninvited in 2022 following its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the singer faced boos when she sang “Hurricane” on the show. Golan, who finished fifth, later said she faced death threats during her run in last year’s contest.
Sean “Diddy” Combs has sued a man he says defamed him by falsely alleging he possessed videos of the embattled hip-hop mogul committing sexual assault, causing him “profound reputational and economic injury and severe prejudice” ahead of his criminal trial.
In the complaint, filed in New York federal court on Wednesday (Jan. 22), Combs accuses Courtney Burgess, along with Burgess’ attorney Ariel Mitchell, of “pretending they have proof that Mr. Combs engaged in heinous acts, knowing that no such proof exists” — thereby leading “millions of people … to believe in the made-up ‘evidence’ that Defendants have falsely described and vouched for.”
Mitchell notably represents several of Combs’ accusers.
“Defendant Burgess falsely claimed that he possessed videos of Mr. Combs involved in the sexual assault of celebrities and minors,” write Combs’ attorneys Michael Termonte, Erica Wolff and Anna Estevao of the New York firm Sher Tremonte. They add that Mitchell then “repeated those lies” to media outlets while knowing all along that Burgess’ claims “were false, or at a minimum was utterly reckless in disregarding their falsity.” The complaint accuses both Burgess and Mitchell of seeking “to capitalize on the resulting publicity for financial gain” despite knowing that “no such tapes exist.”
Also named as a defendant in the lawsuit is cable network NewsNation, which the lawsuit claims “recklessly repeated and amplifed [Burgess’] lies as if they were true” without ever reaching out to Combs’ representatives for comment or verifying that the alleged videotapes existed in the first place.
To bolster their case, Combs’ attorneys attempt to discredit Burgess by referring to him as “a fringe character” who claims to have worked in the music industry “for decades” even though “there exists no public record of any professional achievements and he left no detectable footprint on the industry prior to his recent campaign to malign Mr. Combs.” They further allege that despite Burgess’ claims that he received the alleged videos from Combs’ late ex-girlfriend Kim Porter, he in fact had “no more than a passing acquaintance” with her.
Combs’ attorneys also claim that Burgess tried to capitalize on the highly publicized allegations swirling around Combs by posting a memoir allegedly written by Porter to Amazon, which they say later pulled the book after it “was denounced by Ms. Porter’s family and others as a fake,” according to the suit.
The lawsuit equally tries to discredit Mitchell — known for filing sexual assault cases against powerful men including Trey Songz, Chris Brown and Combs himself — by claiming her cases against Songz and Brown were disproven and that in “peddling false claims to media outlets” like NewsNation about the alleged videotapes of Combs, she “insisted on valuable benefits and payments in exchange for interviews, including first class air travel, four-star hotel accommodations, hair and makeup allowances, and a ‘materials fee’ for copies of, among other things, demand letters sent on behalf of one of her clients who sued Mr. Combs.”
They add that Mitchell spread her alleged lies about Combs far and wide, including in multiple NewsNation appearances and in a documentary about Combs titled The Making of a Bad Boy that aired on NBC’s Peacock streaming service earlier this month. (NBC is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.)
“Defendants made these false and defamatory statements in bad faith, as part of a deliberate effort to damage Mr. Combs’s reputation, undermine his businesses and, by painting him as debauched and a pedophile, to poison the public’s perception of him and deprive him of a fair trial,” Combs’ attorneys conclude.
Combs is asking for “not less” than $50 million in damages.
Burgess, Mitchell and NewsNation did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s requests for comment.
Combs is currently imprisoned at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn ahead of his criminal trial, which is set to kick off on May 5. He is charged with running a multi-faceted criminal enterprise in order to satisfy his need for “sexual gratification.” Among other accusations, he is alleged to have held so-called “freak off” parties, during which he and others drugged victims and coerced them into having sex. He faces a potential life prison sentence if convicted on all charges.
Angel Carter Conrad is getting ready to tell her side of her family’s history — including her memories of famous brothers Nick Carter and the late Aaron Carter — in a new documentary titled The Carters coming to Paramount+ later this year.
As announced Wednesday (Jan. 22), the two-part project will give viewers a “deeply personal look at the extreme highs and tragic lows of a family propelled into the spotlight” by Nick’s boy band career with the Backstreet Boys and Aaron’s rise to solo pop stardom. Told through the eyes of Angel — Aaron’s twin sister — the doc will piece together the Carter family’s “deeply disturbing path” through never-before-seen home movies and exclusive interviews with friends Melissa Joan Hart and Scout Willis.
“The Carters follows bona fide American teen heartthrobs, Nick and Aaron, who seemed to have it all,” reads a description. “But behind their remarkable gifts was a family dealing with mental health struggles, drug addiction, and heartbreaking neglect.”
An exact release date has not yet been announced. Director Soleil Moon Frye said in a statement, “I feel morally responsible to create a safe space for others to share their truths … Angel’s courage in sharing her family’s journey of mental health issues, addiction, pain, unbearable loss, and at the core, love, is a profound testament to who she is.”
“This documentary is a labor of love for my family,” added Angel. “By sharing our true story — one shaped by loss, resilience, and healing — I hope to honor our journey and transform our past into a message of hope and purpose for others facing similar challenges.”
Aaron, Nick and Angel are three of five children in their family. They also had a sister named Leslie, who died of an apparent overdose in 2012, and another sister, Bobbie Jean, who died of an accidental overdose in 2023. Aaron died the year prior in an accidental drowning. The siblings also lost their father to a heart attack in 2017.
Seemingly uninvolved in the documentary, Nick Carter is currently embroiled in legal battles with three women who have accused him of sexual assault: Shannon “Shay” Ruth, Dream singer Melissa Schuman and an anonymous Jane Doe, who in August 2023 filed a complaint alleging Nick assaulted her multiple times in 2003 when she was 15. Ruth sued the “Now or Never” singer in December 2022 for allegedly raping her on a tour bus when she was a teenager, while Schuman’s suit came in April 2023 over claims Nick gave her drug-laced alcohol and assaulted her when she was 18.
In August last year, Nick countersued Schuman for $2.5 million. He also countersued Ruth before that; both times, a judge refused attempts to have the countersuits dismissed.
Rüfüs Du Sol will play a show benefitting Los Angeles wildfire relief efforts on March 6 at the Hollywood Palladium. The one night only performance will feature a DJ set by the Australia-born, U.S.-based group.
100% of the ticket proceeds from the Live Nation produced event will be donated to California Community Foundation Wildfire Recovery Fund, which is focused on directing resources with people most in need. Tickets go on sale via Ticketmaster this Thursday (Jan. 23) at 10 a.m. PT.
The show will happen six days before the launch of the trio’s previously announced world tour in support of their fifth studio album. The trek kicks off starts in Guadalajara, Mexico on March 12, extends through November and includes a sold out show at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles. Los Angeles was home to Rüfüs Du Sol when they first moved to the U.S. from their native Australia, with the trio writing “Los Angeles we love you,” on their social media post announcing the show.
The show announcement comes on the heels of a new fire in the Los Angeles area, with the Hughes Fire forcing evacuations in Castaic, an area just north of Los Angeles, after starting on the morning of Jan. 22. Red flag warnings, which indicate an increased risk of fire danger, remain in effect for Los Angeles and Ventura counties until Thursday (Jan. 23.)
With the show announcement, Rüfüs Du Sol joins a long list of artists getting involved in wildfire relief efforts. The FireAid concert is set to take place on Jan. 30 at the Kia Forum and the Intuit Dome with a star-studded lineup including Billie Eilish, Dave Matthews & John Mayer, Earth, Wind & Fire, Green Day, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Lil Baby, Peso Pluma, Stevie Nicks, Sting and more. The 2025 Grammys and its attendant MusiCare event has also announced a focus on wildfire relief efforts.
After starting on Jan. 7, the Eaton and Palisades fires have decimated entire neighborhoods in Los Angeles, killing at least 28 people, displacing thousands and damaging or destroying at least 15,000 structures.
In an executive order issued on his first day back in office, President Donald Trump rolled back protections for the transgender community and declared that the United States would no longer provide any federal funds to “promote gender ideology.” If it’s a fight the president wants on trans rights, then Lucy Dacus is ready to square up.
In a post to her X account on Wendesday (Jan. 22), the singer-songwriter told her fans to share GoFundMe pages for trans people looking to pay for gender-affirming surgeries, promising that she would donate $10,000 as a means of helping. “if trans people wanna comment surgery gofundmes, I’m gonna give away 10k in $500 increments until it’s gone,” she wrote. “if other people wanna scroll through and make donations, please do.”
The post, which has since earned more than 300 replies, ended with a stark message from the Boygenius singer about the future for trans Americans under a second Trump presidency. “the government will never be the source of our validation or protection,” she wrote. “we have to do it ourselves.”
Trump’s executive order (titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”) makes it the official policy of the United States that there are only two sexes, while also eliminating any and all federal funding for gender-affirming health care.
The executive order comes despite calls from established medical organizations — including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association and the Endocrine Society — for policies aimed at limiting access to gender-affirming care to stop. Additionally, the American Medical Association continues to acknowledge that gender identity and sexual orientation both exist on a spectrum rather than as a binary.
LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Lambda Legal already announced that they plan to challenge Trump’s executive order in court, saying “the impact of these executive actions will be devastating — stripping away health care access, weakening workplace protections from abuse, inviting exclusion and harassment of vulnerable school children, and giving a green light to discrimination throughout public life.”
Meanwhile, Dacus is currently promoting her forthcoming new album, Forever Is a Feeling. Last week, she debuted two new songs, “Limerence” and “Ankles,” while debuting the latter during a performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Gracie Abrams and Demi Lovato are calling out Instagram parent company Meta for seemingly hindering their efforts to unfollow President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on the app after Inauguration Day.
Sharing a close-up selfie on her Story Tuesday (Jan. 21) — one day after the politicians were sworn into office — the “That’s So True” singer wrote that she “had to unfollow @vp and @potus three (3) separate times today because @meta kept automatically refollowing the accounts.”
“How curious!” she continued. “Had to block them in order to make sure I am nowhere near that. Sharing in case this is happening to your account as well.”
The Camp Rock alum also spoke out Tuesday. Posting a screenshot of Vance’s profile onto her own Story, Lovato wrote, “I have unfollowed this guy twice today.”
“Shady f–king business meta,” they added.
In a statement posted by Meta’s Andy Stone on Threads Wednesday and shared with Billboard, the company denied that anyone was “made to automatically follow any of the official Facebook or Instagram accounts for the President, Vice President or First Lady.”
“Those accounts are managed by the White House so with a new administration, the content on those Pages changes,” the communications director explained. “This is the same procedure we followed during the last presidential transition. It may take some time for follow and unfollow requests to go through as these accounts change hands.”
Trump and Vance’s administration assumed control over Instagram’s @potus and @vp handles following their swearing-in ceremony Monday (Jan. 20), which marked the start of the twice-impeached billionaire’s second White House term. For the past four years, the accounts were run by the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration, which Abrams and Lovato both openly supported.
The two singers had also endorsed Harris‘ 2024 presidential bid, with the former Eras Tour opener performing at one of the former prosecutor’s October rallies in Madison, Wis. After Harris lost the election to Trump on Nov. 5, Lovato shared a message of hope on X, writing, “This was OUR election and WE WON TOGETHER. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but today we will celebrate each other.”
Nearly two months later, Trump is about 48 hours into his second presidency – and he’s hit the ground running. Following a weekend of inauguration festivities – featuring technical-difficulty-ridden performances from Carrie Underwood and Billy Ray Cyrus – the politician has already signed multiple executive actions targeting immigration, delaying the national TikTok ban and pardoning people charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol. He’s also reversed dozens of Biden-era orders protecting against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Trump – who was previously banned from Meta’s platforms for two years following the Jan. 6 insurrection – and his team have also been putting his reclaimed @potus account to use. He’s posted on Instagram eight times in the past two days and on Tuesday shared a video of himself signing orders in the Oval Office captioned, “Who’s ready for Day Two? The momentum is unstoppable!”
Grimes had no comment on what many have described as a Nazi-like salute given by her ex, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, during one of Donald Trump’s inaugural events on Monday. The tech titan who has reportedly been given an office in the White House for his newly created Department of Government Efficiency made two rapid, straight-armed hand gestures during the celebration of Trump’s second swearing-in, motions that instantly drew comparisons to the signature “Sieg Heil” salute made by reviled Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Seemingly taken aback by the news of the incident involving the father of her three children, Grimes reacted to a fan’s distress over the incident by writing on X, “it is unhealthy that people are this upset when I have not even been online yet today and am only just learning about this controversy now. I don’t know what happened and I will not make a rash statement – I am not a citizen of this country.”
Initially Grimes said she was going to bed and vowed to do her research, but declined to “say something that will create an international scandal,” in response to the fascist-like salute that quickly became just that.
Democratic New York Rep. Jerry Nadler also took to Musk’s X to lament, “I never imagined we would see the day when what appears to be a Heil Hitler salute would be made behind the Presidential seal,” about the widely circulated video of Musk’s grunting, straight-arm salutes during a speech at D.C.’s Capitol One Arena after Trump’s swearing in. “This abhorrent gesture has no place in our society and belongs in the darkest chapters of human history. I urge all of my colleagues to unite in condemning this hateful gesture for what it is: antisemitism.”
In her post, Grimes pushed back at those who she said appeared willing to cancel her for the seemingly fascist gesture made by her ex, “before [I] even heard it happened.” That said, Grimes made it clear: “I am not him. I will not make a statement every time he does something. I can only send love back into a world that is hurting.”
She added that she appreciated the fans’ concern, but, “in a world stimulated by scandal, I feel a moral imperative to only add to the mess when something positive can be done. Otherwise I’m just adding tot he desensitization. To be clear i could go talk s–t and be on a bunch of magazine covers and be a feminist hero and get clout – but it would serve no purpose. I choose my children’s wellbeing. I promise you it doesn’t feel good to be hated all the time for things I don’t even know about, cannot predict and cannot control. But I also chose this path, I accept it. I make the best of it, and I simply wish happiness and health to all.”
Grimes appeared to quickly have a change of heart, posting a short time later, “I’m happy to denounce Nazi-ism – and the far alt right. Would that help clear things up? I’ve just gotten out of breakfast and have to catch a flight, and am still debating how to approach things diplomatically because I feel in over my head. But if there’s concern about that, I am happy to set the record strait in a meaningful way.”
My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank Iero had a sharper, more succinct response to the two quick chest-thump, straight right arm with palm down movements the ADL describes as a gesture meant to pay homage to Hitler and which since WWII has been used by “neo-Nazis and other white supremacists… making it the most common white supremacist hand sign in the world.”
Iero shared a screenshot of the salute on Instagram and wrote, “F–k this guy and every single person supporting this s–t or wasting any kind of breath attempting to defend it. Your true colors are shining through. #SmashHate.”
Musk re-posted the video, including the Nazi-like salute, on his X feed and after the tide of criticism appeared to react, writing, “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler‘ attack is sooo tired [sleeping emoji].” He did not formally denounce Nazism or deny making the gesture associated with Hitler, though he did agree with another tweet that asked, “Can we please retire the calling people a Nazi thing? It didn’t work during the election, it’s not working now, it’s tired, boring, and old material, you’ve burned out its effect, people don’t feel shocked by it anymore, the wolf has been cried too many times.”
In response, Musk wrote, “Yeah exactly [yawning emoji].”
Though Musk, 53, appeared bored with the call-out about what many saw as a white supremacist dog whistle, a number of neo-Nazi leaders shared the clip, according to AFP. The head of an Australian neo-Nazi group reportedly wrote on Telegram, “Donald Trump White Power movement.” In addition, on the neo-Nazi forum Stormfront, another user is said to have posted an image of Musk’s salute along with the phrase “Heil Hitler.”
One of the chapters of the far right Proud Boys militia — whose leader and several members were among the 1,600 people unconditionally pardoned by Trump on Monday for their part in the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 after Trump lost his second bid for the White House — wrote simply, “Hail Trump!”
The co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism told the AFP that, “there is no question among white supremacists that Musk was making a Nazi salute.”
The world’s richest man, who has become a regular presence alongside Trump since donating $277 million to President’s third campaign, was denounced in 2023 when he endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory popular among white supremacists that Jewish communities push “hatred against Whites.”
At the time, Musk shared the original hate post promoting the theory — as well as referencing another antisemitic conspiracy theory about the “hordes of minorities” that are moving to Western countries — and then re-shared it with the comment “you have said the actual truth.” Weeks later, Musk apologized for what he described as his “dumbest” social media post ever before bashing advertisers who had begun leaving X in 2023 because of the rising tide of antisemitism on the platform that Musk bought in 2022.
See Grimes and Iero’s posts below.
While I deeply respect your concern- it is unhealthy that people are this upset when I have not even been online yet today and am only just learning about this controversy now. I don’t know what happened and I will not make a rash statement – I am not a citizen of this country.…— 𝖦𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 ⏳ (@Grimezsz) January 21, 2025
I’m happy to denounce Nazi-ism – and the far alt right. Would that help clear things up? I’ve just gotten out of breakfast and have to catch a flight, and am still debating how to approach things diplomatically because I feel in over my head. But if there’s concern about that,…— 𝖦𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 ⏳ (@Grimezsz) January 21, 2025