Kneecap announce 3Arena concert

Belfast hip-hop trio Kneecap are set to perform in Dublin’s 3Arena on December 17.

The band, consisting of Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara, and DJ Próvaí, burst onto the international stage in recent years with a mix of English and Irish language music. In 2024, Kneecap released a feature film of the same name, a fictionalised account of their rise to fame. Móglaí Bap said in August “Our film’s massively inspired by Trainspotting- only with less heroin.”

The film won NEXT Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, and was the first Irish language film to premiere at the festival.

The same year, Kneecap released their debut studio album Fine Art. The record garnered the trio millions of streams, places on multiple end-of-year album lists and an IMRO Number 1 award for topping Irish charts. Following the album's success, they secured multiple headline shows- including a show at Coachella, and their first US TV appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

“People from my area don’t get this opportunity. I’ve been reminding myself this constantly. Obviously you can be busy touring, and things can be really hard and stressful- but I think it’s very important to take a second, and remind yourself how lucky we are to be able to do what we love. Because people struggle. People work on fucking building sites 12 hours a day,” Mo Chara said in an interview for HotPress annual. See the full interview here.

Kneecap’s politically charged music, informed by Irish Republicanism, has drawn controversy from multiple institutions. In 2024, the then business secretary Kemi Badenoch, attempted to block a grant to the group of £14,250 from the UK’s Music Exports Growth Scheme. A spokesperson said that the government would not fund “people that oppose the United Kingdom itself."

A hearing later that year in Belfast’s High Court ruled the decision by Badenoch was “unlawful” and the band were awarded the grant. They split this among two Belfast youth groups.

“This stuff happens all the time up here,” Mo Chara said. “There’s massive injustices happening constantly- it just flies under the radar. People in the North are subjugated to tyranny, basically. And the British government are getting away with murder. It’s only because we were lucky enough to have a bit of backing, with the platform we have, that we could get a lawyer. Most people don’t have that privilege up here.”

The band is also due to play at Fairview Park in Dublin on June 19.