Donald Trump, the 80-year-old president of the United States, spent his weekend whining about a lake and posting memes of Donald’s Ducks. While he was busy with his ducks, Olivia Rodrigo, a 23-year-old pop star, spent her weekend trying to Make America Somewhat Decent Again. On Saturday, Rodrigo hosted the inaugural Daisy Chain Fields festival, bringing together female artists to raise money for women-focused non-profits which have had their funding slashed by the Trump administration. The festival raised $10m (£7.4m) which Melinda French Gates matched, bringing the total to $20m.
In a perfect world a singer holding a benefit concert for feminist charities wouldn’t be radical stuff. But we don’t live in a perfect world, do we? We live in hell. Trump has successfully bullied US institutions into doing his bidding. Universities have defunded Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programmes, many media outlets have kowtowed to the US’s self-styled king and tech CEOs have jumped into bed with him. Women’s rights are going backwards globally and our civil liberties are under attack.
It has become depressingly clear just how many of the rich and powerful are self-serving cowards who will abandon social justice issues as soon as it becomes mildly inconvenient. So it was refreshing to see a young musician rally people together in service of reproductive justice at a festival that was proudly feminist and didn’t pretend to be non-political.
Rodrigo has always used her platform to speak out: she’s never been one of those annoying celebrities who insist that remaining apolitical is some sort of noble act. When Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022 the then 19-year-old musician condemned the decision on stage at Glastonbury. Rodrigo, who is Filipino American, also publicly told the Trump administration not to use her music in their “racist, hateful propaganda” when one of her songs was featured in a government video telling undocumented immigrants to self-deport.
Rodrigo has also not been silent about Gaza: a subject many celebrities are terrified to mention, because empathising with Palestinians is a tried-and-tested way to ruin your career. Last year she wrote on Instagram about how “mothers, fathers and children in Gaza are starving, dehydrated and being denied access to basic medical care ...” Rodrigo also gave a nod to Palestine (which, thanks to Israel’s attacks on maternity wards and healthcare is a reproductive justice issue) at a press conference for her Daisy Chain Fields festival, where she wore a dress made by Palestinian fashion brand Nöl Collective.
Speaking on the New York Times’s Popcast earlier this year, Rodrigo said acknowledging social issues is part of expressing herself. “I think it would just be disingenuous to be like, I don’t feel heartbroken about what’s going on in Gaza. As an artist, I feel like that’s just what you do. And that’s my job,” she said.
Frankly, I think it’s the job of everyone with any sort of platform or power. Celebrities shouldn’t have to get political, some will say. No, of course not. But if you have a huge platform and oodles of money and even just a smidgen of a conscience, then you should probably want to use your resources and reach for good, shouldn’t you? Giving money to charity is one thing, but it takes more courage to show people where you stand, knowing there may be repercussions for it. I hate this idea of not “taking sides”: the world is not a football match; political parties are not “teams”. It is not divisive to stand with vulnerable people.
Taylor Swift, the richest female musician in history, certainly seemed to agree with that at one point. She famously stayed quiet in the lead-up to the 2016 election, but later, when more celebrities were doing so, came out to endorse progressive causes. “I need to be on the right side of history,” she said in the 2020 documentary Miss Americana.
But while Swift did endorse Kamala Harris in 2024, she has been very careful about what she says during Trump 2.0. Unlike all the musicians who have publicly condemned the Trump administration for using their music in offensive posts, she seemingly ignored the use of her songs by Trump for months. In recent weeks her songs have been quietly removed from Trump’s ragebait posts, but Swift has not issued any sort of public statement about it. And she certainly hasn’t said anything about issues such as Gaza or ICE.
There are limits to celebrity activism, sure. But in a world where free speech is under attack, it feels increasingly important for celebrities to speak out. Let’s hope Rodrigo’s festival prompts more of her peers to have some guts.
• Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
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