Two Dead Sea ‘peace concerts’ for Coldplay?
Popular British rock band Coldplay is planning to perform two “peace concerts” for Israelis and Palestinians, Channel 2 reported Monday. The concerts, set for November 3 and 4, will be dedicated to promoting human rights and coexistence and will take place at an outdoor location in the northern Dead Sea area, according to the report.
The tickets – 50,000 for each concert – will be sold in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The report did not name a promoter for the show or give specific details on the venue, saying only it is an “agricultural area” in Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli control.
Coldplay, which has sold over 80 millions records worldwide, will arrive in Israel two weeks before the shows and record a song with Israeli and Palestinian artists.
Few artists have attempted similar Middle East peace-themed concerts on this scale. Roger Waters, the former Pink Floyd frontman, played a concert in the Jewish-Muslim coexistence village Neveh Shalom in 2006. He has since become a leading proponent of the boycott movement against Israel.
Paul McCartney, Leonard Cohen and Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson have all either donated proceeds from their shows here to coexistence causes or visited centers for Jewish and Muslim youth.
For years, local producers have offered lucrative deals to entice the seven-time Grammy-winning band to rock out in Israel. The band’s frontman, Chris Martin, arrived for a quick trip to the Holy Land in November, sparking rumors of a potential upcoming performance.
The April release of Coldplay’s video for its single “Up&Up” gained local notoriety as it was directed by the Israeli creative duo Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia.
Martin has spoken highly of the video, referring to it as “one of the best videos... ever made.”
Martin is currently the artistic director for the Global Citizen Festival, which is run by the Global Poverty Project, an organization devoted to ending extreme poverty by 2030.