Dua Lipa has robustly pushed back against tabloid reports that she fired her booking agent, WME’s David Levy, after he signed a letter objecting to the booking of Kneecap for this year’s Glastonbury Festival. She says that the news story, and the way it’s been reported, is “clearly designed to fuel online division”.
It is true that Levy joined about 30 other music industry execs in signing a letter to Michael and Emily Eavis earlier this year, in the wake of Kneecap’s controversial Coachella set, expressing concern about the band playing Glasto. It’s also true that Lipa opposed that intervention by Levy et el, reckoning it’s wrong to try to stop an artist from “speaking their truth”.
However, recent reports about that disagreement - which began with an article in the always trustworthy tabloid eyeball factory that is the Mail On Sunday - were very much embellished. Or, in the words of Lipa herself, written to be “deliberately inflammatory purely for clickbait”. Which is something at which the Mail has always excelled, of course.
Some of the media outlets reporting on Lipa sacking a key member of her team this week ran headlines declaring that it was the singer’s manager that had been ousted. Which would have been a pretty big story, given Lipa is managed by her father Dukagjin Lipa.
However, it did not take much digging to discover the sacking did not in fact involve Lipa’s manager, but her agent. To anyone involved in the music business the distinction is pretty clear, whereas the manager is usually involved in all aspects of an artist’s business, the booking agent is focused on the live side of the artist’s career, securing shows and negotiating deals with concert promoters.
To tabloid journalists that distinction is perhaps less obvious, hence the confused headlines in some publications. Nevertheless, Lipa sacking her booking agent - while not quite as significant as her firing her manager dad - was still quite a big story.
Except, of course, with just a little more digging it became clear that Lipa hadn’t sacked her agent either. Because her day-to-day agent at WME is an entirely different David, that being David Bradley. Instead, Lipa had simply requested that Levy - who was more actively involved in her live career in the past - did not get involved in any future projects.
So many Davids, so little fact checking. Though presumably, great for driving some clicks. But, I think we can all agree, the actual story that the Mail was reporting - and all the other news sites were picking up - was much less dramatic than first implied. And even that wasn’t true, with Lipa declaring on social media that the Mail’s entire report was “completely false”.
The Mail quoted one of those pesky “industry sources” as saying that Lipa had “made sure through her people that David Levy wasn’t working on her music anymore”, because “she views him as being a supporter of Israel’s war in Gaza and the terrible treatment of the Palestinians”, and “that was made very clear through the letter that he signed and sent to Michael Eavis”.
Responding via Instagram, Lipa - who, like Kneecap, is also an outspoken supporter of the Palestinian cause - confirmed, “I do not condone the actions of David Levy or other music executives toward an artist speaking their truth”.
However, she went on, “I also cannot ignore how this has been handled in the press. Not only was the story completely false, but the language used by the Mail has been deliberately inflammatory, crafted purely for clickbait, clearly designed to fuel online division”.
She then concluded, “It is always Free Palestine, but exploiting a global tragedy in order to sell newspapers is something I find deeply troubling”.
WME has also issued a statement insisting all the claims made in the Mail article are “categorically false”. While Levy played a role in Lipa’s live career from 2016 to 2019, it then explained, “when he moved out of London in 2019, he transitioned into an advisory role and has not been involved in Dua’s day-to-day business since”. Levy then “fully removed himself from the project among others earlier this year”.
The Glasto letter Levy signed did cause some controversy within the music community when it leaked earlier this summer. But Kneecap still played Glastonbury, of course, despite the letter.
And, although their set included the customary on-stage support for Palestine and criticism of Israel, it didn’t prove to be all that controversial after all. Especially when compared to Bob Vylan’s performance that preceded Kneecap’s appearance on the festival’s West Holts Stage.