The Blessed Madonna calls out Róisín Murphy over claims of “censorship”

The Blessed Madonna has called out fellow musician Róisín Murphy after the Irish singer made a controversial speech at Parliament earlier this week.

It followed initial backlash against the singer in 2023, when she spoke out against the use of puberty blockers for young trans people in a series of comments on her private Facebook account.

She then reiterated her views on Twitter last year, sharing a graph that claimed that the number of 18 to 22-year-olds who identify as transgender and non-binary has declined in recent years.

“The real “denial of existence” is the denial of data and knowledge," she claimed at the time. “Absolute havoc wreaked on children, families and society.”

Murphy was subsequently removed from the bill of Istanbul festival Back In Town following controversial comments, and was criticised online by artists including CMAT and Sega Bodega.

Earlier this week, Róisín Murphy gave a speech at a launch event for the latest report by Freedom In The Arts, speaking in front of Parliament about “censorship” in the arts.

“The creative soul of this country ... has always thrived on discomfort, on the freedom to be wrong, to offend, to pivot and to surprise ourselves,” she said (via The Telegraph).

“Without that freedom, we don’t get better art, we simply put artists into a chokehold and suffocate the life out of our culture. We need free, equal and open debate. The arts must breathe freely again.”

She went on to claim that artists must “self-censor” to protect themselves from 'cancel culture' when sharing their views online over fears that they might “offend the wrong people” or lead to them “losing funding”.

In response, The Blessed Madonna called out Róisín’s comments, writing in an Instagram post: “What is wrong with you Roisin? Are you going through it? Are you going through some kind of psychological change in your life?”

“There was a time I would be surprised that you stood in Westminster Palace – a literal seat of power, with a literal microphone, being literally platformed – and framed yourself as someone being silenced by a conspiracy of the T in LGBT.”

She continued: “A boycott is not simply people who decline to purchase your album and express their rejection of you in your Instagram comments. What you are experiencing is considerably simpler: consequences.”

Read The Blessed Madonna’s full post below.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Associate Digital Editor, follow her on X