In today’s world, it is impossible to escape from politics: family dinners, podcasts, social media and I get it.
There is so much going on in the world and it’s hard to catch up with the Trump administration announcing something new everyday— there is bound to be talk. Even celebrities have been risking their platforms by speaking out about politics they believe in. It has created this new expectation of what a celebrity’s responsibility is beyond entertainment. It has gone so far that fans have started criticizing celebrities who don’t speak on politics and pressuring them to do so.
In theory, it is a good idea: use people with huge platforms to spread a message to a larger audience in hopes of gaining awareness and support. However, people tend to forget that celebrity does not always equal political advocate. Just because they’re a public figure doesn’t mean they know what they’re talking about.
A prime example of this is Chappell Roan— she hasn’t been a big pop star for very long, but immediately faced pressure to share her political views during the Harris vs. Trump presidential race in 2024. When she came out saying she did not support either completely but would vote for Harris, she attracted a lot of backlash.
The pressure didn’t end after that. Roan went onto the “Call Her Daddy” podcast and doubled down, asking critics, “I don’t know everything about every topic I have opinions on […] Why are you looking to me for some political answer? You think I have answers? I’m a pop star.”
I actually respect Roan’s honesty. More people need to acknowledge that celebrities work for entertainment, not the government. Roan, for example, is a specialist in her field of singing— go ahead and ask her about vocal warm-ups and extravagant performances but she should not be who you turn to for politics. The same applies for all celebrities.
We also have to consider the financial aspect of it all. Some celebrities may be making a tactical decision by not speaking out about their beliefs in order to keep their viewership. A lot of what celebrities do is part of marketing, meaning they make decisions based on what will make the most money. Especially with the presence of cancel culture nowadays, public figures always have to be careful about what they say or they risk losing money.
Even when musicians speak openly about their political beliefs, they still face persecution. Kanye West was booed after saying, “If I would have voted, I would have voted for Trump,” during a concert in 2016. After incidents like Roan and Kanye, it makes sense why celebrities would stray away from political topics — they are trying to keep making the most money possible, just like anyone else.
To relate this to more recent news, Bad Bunny and the NFL have been receiving backlash since it was announced that Bad Bunny would be the halftime show performer for Super Bowl LX. NFL fans are threatening to even boycott the Super Bowl over this decision, mainly due to Bad Bunny’s political opinions. One fan took to X asking, “Does this guy really scream American football to anyone? Be for real with me. No one thinks he does. This isn’t about music, it’s about putting a guy on stage who hates Trump and MAGA.” This reaction shows the bigger consequences that can occur because of a celebrity speaking their beliefs.
We would all love to believe that we have freedom of speech, but that has been nothing but threatened recently. After Jimmy Kimmel’s show got suspended after he made comments regarding President Trump and Charlie Kirk, it was made clear that speech, especially from celebrities, has its limits. There is media training for a reason — any wrong word could create a whirlwind of problems for a celebrity.
Now I am not saying all celebrities should stay away from politics, but just that we, as the audience, shouldn’t be pressuring them to say anything. They are looking out for themselves and their wants just like many people would. We should not make this a new expectation and job requirement for actors, singers and so on. If anything we should expect celebrities to entertain us and give us a break from the politics of it all.
Celebrities already have a busy career entertaining us. We should not expect them to be politicians either.
Many celebrities have worked hard to gain the platform they have now, so they should be able to control what they do with that platform. Especially with artistic careers: the job is meant to be a way to express oneself, not change their art for the audience.
If someone wants a big platform to be used for politics, they should go ahead and build their own.
