British singer Robbie Williams' concert at Ataköy Marina, which was due to take place tonight, has been cancelled due to increasing calls for protests and security concerns amid the second anniversary of the Hamas attacks in Israel.
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Robbie Williams has cancelled the final show of his world ‘BRITPOP’ tour in Turkey following public safety concerns.
The concert would have occurred on the second anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks in Israel.
Williams was due to perform at Ataköy Marina in Istanbul tonight but confirmed on his Instagram Stories that he was “extremely sorry” and that the concert had been pulled.
He wrote: “City authorities have cancelled the show, in the interests of public safety. The last thing I would ever want to do is to jeopardise the safety of my fans – their safety and security come first. We were very excited to be playing Istanbul for the first time, and purposely chose the city as the final show of the Britpop tour. To end this epic run of dates in front of my Turkish fans was my dream, given the close connections my family have with this wonderful country.”
Williams, 51, is married to Ayda Field Williams, who is Turkish-born with a Jewish mother.
He added: “To everyone in Istanbul who wanted to join the 1.2 million people who have shared this phenomenal tour this year with us, I am deeply sorry. We were so looking forward to this show, but the decision to cancel it was beyond our control.”
Many have established a link between the gig cancellation and Robbie Williams’ past support for Israel, where he has played in 2015 and 2023 - despite calls from pro-Palestinian activists to cancel the concerts.
Some users on social media accused Williams of being a "Zionist" and had called for the concert to be cancelled. One user X wrote: "We DO NOT WANT this concert, which coincides with the same day that genocidal Israel attacked Gaza!"
Another user said: "Robbie Williams, who supports genocide, will give a concert in Turkey on October 7, the day the massacres started! This concert should never be held, we want to read the news of cancellation."
Following these calls, some non-governmental organisations started to prepare protests against the concert to be held on 7 October. The marches in support of Palestine organised in different parts of Istanbul on the same day were considered as another factor increasing the security risk.
Some users on X, on the other hand, found the cancellation of the concert unjustified, arguing that the fact Williams performed in Israel does not make him a "Zionist".
Since Hamas’ attack on Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023, multiple UN human rights experts have stated that Israel’s military actions in Gaza amount to genocide, with the International Court of Justice finding claims of genocide plausible. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification announced that people in the Gaza Strip are officially facing “a man-made” famine in the territory – despite what the Israeli government has said.
The cancellation comes a month after Turkish authorities banned a concert of Enrico Macias, the French singer of Algerian-Jewish origin. Macias has on previously defended Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Williams is still expected to perform his upcoming gig on Thursday at Dingwalls in Camden, UK, which will see him play his upcoming album ‘BRITPOP’ in fill for the first time.
‘BRITPOP’ was due to be released this Friday (10 October) but was recently pushed back to 6 February 2026 due to “scheduling issues". Many online have noticed how the original date of release happened to fall too close to Taylor Swift’s already record-breaking new album ‘The Life of a Showgirl’...
