Serj Tankian, frontman of metal band System of a Down, took to Twitter yesterday to call out the number of popular artists who have performed in Azerbaijan, among other countries currently led by dictatorships.
As reported by loudwire.com, Tankian was responding to Lusine Djanyan of the punk band Pussy Riot, who herself had quoted a clip from ARTE, a European public service channel. Within it was a discussion of dictators using American pop stars to better their reputations, as well as clips of Rihanna in Azerbaidjan, Kanye West in Kazakhstan, and Jennifer Lopez singing “Happy Birthday” to the president of Turkmenistan. Djanyan’s tweet remarked that “Those people who have never lived in a dictatorship help whitewash the image of dictators and normalize their human rights violations within countries and war attacks against neighbors.”
Tankian made his point clear in his response, saying “It was not just [Rihanna] that played in Azerbaijan but a slew of well paid artists along with [Formula One] shamelessly helping whitewash this fascist racist dictatorship’s image. Every one of these events and artists are responsible for further human rights violations.”
Tankian and the rest of System of Down, all of whom are of Armenian descent, have been very open about Armenian issues, speaking out September about the bombing of Armenia’s eastern border by Azerbaijan forces. In 2020, the band released the songs “Protect The Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz” via Bandcamp, with the proceeds going towards the people of Artsakh during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. The latter song was followed by an animated music video as part of a fundraiser for Armenian soldiers fighting within the war.
While the band is still generally on hiatus, the band reunited this May for the Sick New World Festival, headling a stacked line-up of alternative and nu-metal acts both old and new. It is still currently unknown whether any new music or live performances are on the horizon.
Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat
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