Hozier and OVO Arena Wembley have apologized and responded to a fan's complaint about an incident in December in which she was told to remove a “Free Palestine” scarf before attending one of the singer's shows. “Thank you OVO Arena Wembley for clearing up this misunderstanding,” Hozier wrote early Monday morning (February 26) after the venue issued an apology last week to attendee Hiba Ahmad, who said in an earlier X post that ” stepped aside and escorted to the wardrobe” in December while attending a show at the venue wearing the scarf.
“The team and I have a zero-marking policy of any kind and I feel sorry for Hiba and her friends who experienced this at the London show,” added Hozier.
The venue also apologized to Ahmad on February 22, writing: “This was an isolated incident where venue policy was not followed properly. The decision to stop the guest did not follow the wishes of the artist. We have apologized to those involved and are making a donation to UNICEF's appeal for children in Gaza.”
On December 15, Ahmad posted on X about her experience seeing Hozier at the venue, writing: “So tell me why I was pulled aside and ESCORTED into the closet with a body camera to wear a Palestine solidarity scarf at @Hozierhis concert? Not even a scarf, just a Free Palestine scarf that I *literally* wear everywhere in solidarity AND BECAUSE IT'S F–KING COLD!”.
She added, “I was then told that they were taking my scarf for my own protection as I might be charged with a 'hate crime' for wearing it. One of the security personnel who did this told me that they are Arabs and told me that he didn't like doing it while he was doing it asking for more security from me. NICE.” At the time, Ahmad noted that on her way she saw other people come in with “all kinds of political slogans — especially a memorable bag about animal cruelty and testing. But hey, animals > Palestinians right?”
Ahmad claimed that an unnamed person from the venue “insisted” that it was Hozier's team that “demanded” that the scarf be removed, reportedly worried that she would “throw” the scarf onto the stage. Another tweet from Ahmad appeared to indicate that her seats were quite far from the stage.
After Ahmad again claimed in a separate tweet on December 15 that Hozier was responsible for the incident, the the singer responded the next day, writing, “thanks for bringing this to our attention. We are looking into this matter with the venue, but I can categorically state that there was no request made by me for this and my tour did not issue an instruction to deny entry to certain items of clothing or indeed flags.''
Ahmad (born Andrew John Hozier-Byrne) thanked the singer following his post on December 16, writing:Thanks a lot Andrew, I really appreciate you reaching out directly, it shows the person and artist you are. Solidarity!”
The original incident at the arena came two months after Hamas militants invaded Israel and killed more than 1,200 mostly Israeli civilians and took more than 240 hostages, sparking a five-month response by the Israeli military that has reportedly killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Check out Hozier's post below.
