Billie Eilish led a chorus of condemnation of artists at the Glastonbury festival after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in the states.
The 20-year-old singer was performing on the Pyramid stage in Glastonbury when she denounced the controversial sentence.
Presenting her hit song Your Power, she told festival attendees, “Today is a very dark day for women in the United States and I’ll just say that” because I can’t bear to think about it anymore right now. This song is dedicated to this I guess … “
The news of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling came shortly after 6 p.m., UK time, and almost immediately sparked an angry and emotional response from artists performing at the world’s largest festival.
Phoebe Bridgers, the American singer and songwriter, directed the chants of “Fuck the Supreme Court” after saying that “the most shit” had happened.
She asked if there were Americans in the audience, which provoked boos from the crowd, and then added, “Who wants to say, ‘Fuck the Supreme Court’? One, two, three…”
“Shit this shit. Fuck America and all these irrelevant old bastards trying to tell us what to do with our fucking bodies. Shit.”
At least 26 U.S. states are expected to ban abortion immediately, or as soon as possible after the ruling, which will affect tens of millions of women.
U.S. President Joe Biden called the sentence a “tragic mistake” and said he had led the United States on “an extreme and dangerous path.”
Joe Talbot, leader of the British rock band Idles, said the court’s decision had brought the United States “into the Middle Ages.”
Addressing large crowds from across the Glastonbury stage, less than an hour after the verdict was made public, Talbot said: “They reversed the laws until the Middle Ages in the United States, where they are only deciding whether it should be illegal to have an abortion or not. ”
He made the statements while presenting the song Mother and added, “Long live the open mind. Long live my mother and long live each and every one of you.”
The decision is likely to provoke protests and rallies, and intensify the debate within and between states on abortion, and even between cities.