Gorillaz open their North American tour with Albarn raising a Palestinian flag

Gorillaz started their 2026 North American run at the Kia Center in Orlando on 17 September, and the 24-song set drew from across the catalogue: the self-titled debut, Plastic Beach, Demon Days, Humanz and the most recent album, The Mountain. The tour guide has the rest of the dates.

Partway through, Damon Albarn took a Palestinian flag from someone in the audience and lifted it over his head. He told the crowd not to forget it. "Stand your position," he said. "Don't ever be neutral."

The timing was not accidental. NME set the moment against a week in which an artist's ability to say anything about Palestine from a stage has been tested in public: Macklemore made a free Palestine speech opening for Ed Sheeran at MetLife Stadium, drew calls for his removal from Pink and the Israeli American Council, and was dropped from the tour. Robert Kraft, who owns Gillette Stadium, later said he found the speech deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community. Sheeran has said he was not complicit and that he is appalled by the conflict.

Albarn has been saying versions of this for years. Speaking to Channel 4 News he described being engaged with Palestine in one way or another for a long time, and framed it as refusing to deny the legitimacy of Palestine or the historical presence of Palestinians. He played the Together For Palestine show in London last September, the Brian Eno-organised event where he performed a medley of Palestinian traditional songs with the London Arab Orchestra and the Juzour Dance Collective, and where Gorillaz later played Damascus, a song that went on to The Mountain. Their Primavera Sound set in June was introduced by the Palestinian activist Aarab Barghouti, son of the imprisoned politician Marwan Barghouti.

The underlying findings are a matter of record and dispute. A United Nations-appointed Commission of Inquiry concluded in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and Amnesty International reached the same conclusion. Israel has repeatedly denied committing genocide or war crimes, saying its campaign followed the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October and was self-defence, and it rejected the commission's findings as a libellous sham. A later UN inquiry said in June that Israeli forces had deliberately targeted Palestinian children.

Beyond North America, the band have announced their first shows in India for January 2027, a country whose musical and spiritual traditions fed heavily into The Mountain; they are also booked to headline Primavera Sound Buenos Aires. The stage this week belonged to a flag rather than a cartoon band, which for a rock and indie act built entirely on characters is its own kind of statement. Other musicians have paid for similar gestures: Singapore barred two Massive Attack members over a concert display.