Chinouriri latest artist to quit SXSW festival
Rachel Chinouriri is the latest artist to announce she is withdrawing from South by Southwest (SXSW) in Texas, United States.
Rachel’s family is originally from Zimbabwe. She was the first member of her family born in the UK.
Bands are boycotting the festival over its sponsorship deal with the US Army in protest against the military’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza.
The up-and-coming singer-songwriter said her last-minute decision was because she had been “naïve” to the sponsorship and she was “horrified” when she found out.
Posting on X, SXSW said it respected the artists’ decisions.
Dozens of acts, including British bands Kneecap, Lambrini Girls, Sprints, Scowl, Gel, Okay Shalom and Squirrel Flower have opted to pull out of the festival, currently running in the city of Austin.
The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, reacted to the boycott by saying: “Bye. Don't come back. We are proud of the US military in Texas,” he wrote on X. “If you don’t like it, don’t come here.”
However, SXSW was quick to distance itself from his comments, saying it welcomes diverse viewpoints and “fully respects the decision these artists made to exercise their right to free speech”.
In a statement on social media, Rachel said she is “grown up seeing the permanent effects war has had on people” and is “100% anti-war”.
She said her parents, who moved to the UK from Zimbabwe, were “child soldiers” and “because of this, war is an extremely triggering topic that I find emotionally difficult to speak about”.
Israel launched a campaign in the Gaza Strip after Hamas — the group which runs the territory and which the UK government says is a terrorist organisation — attacked Israel on October 7 last year, in which about 1 200 people were killed and 253 others were taken hostage.
More than 30 000 people in Gaza have been killed since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
America is Israel’s biggest military backer, providing billions of dollars in defence aid every year, and a number of weapons Israel is using in the conflict, including jets and bombs, are Us-made.
Rachel said she doesn't want “any association with war in any capacity” and hopes to eventually share her family’s story when she is ready.
She said the sponsorship was “an enormous oversight by SXSW and hopefully a huge learning experience to be more considerate about this in the future”.
SXSW defended its deal with the US Army, saying it was “part of our commitment to bring forward ideas that shape our world”.
Rachel released her debut EP Mama’s Boy in 2019 to critical acclaim. One of the songs from the EP, So My Darling, received attention on Tiktok when it became a popular audio to use.
Chinouriri was signed to Parlophone, with whom she released the EP Four In Winter in 2021. She then released a third EP Better Off Without in 2022. — BBC Online.