American violinist Lindsey Stirling announced she will play in Israel for the first time this summer on her international tour.
Stirling, 36, is slated to perform at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv on July 14. Other stops on her three-month worldwide tour include Puerto Rico, Poland and the mainland United States.
In 2017, the artist tweeted that she would "love to come to Israel!"
I would love to come to Israel!
— Lindsey Stirling (@LindseyStirling) February 22, 2017
Who is Lindsey Stirling?
Stirling is an electronic violinist, dancer and artist with four Billboard chart-topping albums and two Billboard Music Awards, including Best Dance/Electronic Album.
Her holiday album, Warmer in Winter, shot to number one on the Billboard, Amazon and iTunes Holiday Albums charts upon its release and lead single "Carol of the Bells" made history as the only instrumental song ever to reach the top 10 at AC Radio.
Stirling has amassed over three billion views on YouTube, three million followers on TikTok, and over 500,000 user-generated creations across her TikTok and Instagram feeds. In 2015, she was ranked by Forbes at number four on the world's highest-paid YouTube stars.
Her announcement to play in Israel comes amid pressure artists frequently face to boycott the Jewish state. Most recently, the upcoming “By The Summer in the City Festival,” which was set to take place at the end of the month, canceled the first of its two nights of concerts – the one that would have featured singer Sam Smith.
“Due to unforeseeable technical and logistical problems on May 31, the concerts of that evening (including Sam Smith) will not happen,” the event producers said in a statement. “The festival concerts of June 1 will continue as planned. Those who bought tickets are welcome to contact the company they bought the tickets from for a full refund. People who bought tickets for both days of the festival who want to keep the ticket for the second day will be refunded 25% of the ticket price or cancel it and get a full refund.”
Following the announcement that Smith – who now identifies as being gender non-binary – would perform at the festival, a social media campaign was launched by Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) supporters urging them not to perform. The campaign, under #SamDon'tGo involved people urging Smith to cancel the concert, as well as a petition that was launched to convince them to do so.