Green Day condemned for changing lyrics to reference Gaza at Coachella
The American punk rock band sparked backlash at the music festival after referencing “kids from Palestine” in altered lyrics
Green Day has come under fire after using their headline Coachella performance to criticise Israel, changing the lyrics of one of their songs to reference children in Gaza.
During their Saturday night set at the California festival, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong altered the lyrics of the band’s 2004 track Jesus of Suburbia, replacing the original line “Runnin’ away from pain when you’ve been victimised” with “Running away from pain like the kids from Palestine / Tales from another broken home.”
The move, which drew loud cheers from the crowd, prompted critics online, with Israeli writer and social media influencer Hen Mazzig accusing the band of using children for political point-scoring.
“I hate how celebrities pit our kids against each other. Both Israeli and Palestinian children deserve the world’s sympathy and care. Plus, advocating for Palestinian children to live in safety and for Israeli children to get their fathers back aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, they go hand-in-hand,” he wrote on X.
Green Day, formed in California in 1987, are known for their politically charged lyrics and performances. They previously altered their 2004 track Holiday during the 2016 US presidential election, calling then-candidate Donald Trump a “white supremacist”. In 2023, they changed a lyric in American Idiot to say, “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda”.
Just last month in Melbourne, Armstrong again modified Jesus of Suburbia, this time referencing US Vice President JD Vance with the line, “Am I retarded or am I just JD Vance?”
Green Day have not publicly responded to the backlash over the Coachella lyric change.
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