The BBC has moved to deny claims that Roisin Murphy was removed from 6Music due to her views on puberty blockers.
The Irish-born singer’s new album ‘Hit Parade’ is out now, and seems to be on course for a high chart placing – it is currently at No. 3 in the mid-weeks. The success, however, is matched to a noisy debate over Roisin Murphy’s views on puberty blockers.
In a recent post on her personal Facebook, she said that “puberty blockers are f***ng, absolutely desolate”, adding: “Big pharma laughing all the way to the bank.”
Since then, Roisin Murphy has become part of a culture war – even though her own subsequent statement asked that she be excused from such a narrative.
Overnight, a minor social media storm erupted, when someone spotted that scheduled programming on 6Music involving Roisin Murphy had been changed. Five hours of archive material from the Artist In Residence series seemed to change – with Little Simz now the focus artist for the broadcast on September 18th.
Here’s an example of the tweets going viral:
As head of @BBC6Music, Samantha Moy @moyli needs to make a statement on why @roisinmurphy has been cancelled from their schedule.
— Venice Allan (@roseveniceallan) September 12, 2023
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In a bizarre twist, political broadcaster Andrew Neil – hardly a noted fan of Roisin’s music in the past – made demands of the BBC, asking if they could “verify or deny that singer Roisin Murphy has been cancelled by the BBC after criticising puberty blockers? Five hours of Ms Murphy’s songs, interviews and highlights of her concerts were put together for a programme called the 6 Music Artist Collection. This now appears to have been pulled. Also reports that old radio programmes she was in have been removed from BBC Sounds. True?”
A BBC spokesperson said: “The Artist Collections from our archive are regularly on rotation and frequently change to reflect station-wide initiatives as they get confirmed. Little Simz was scheduled to reflect 6 Music’s Way With Words programming, which celebrates poetry, rap and spoken word, and airs the following week, tying in with National Poetry Day.”
“There was no other reason for the change. Roisin Murphy has been played on 6 Music recently and her Artist Collection remains in rotation.” (via Independent)
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