Do we like them?

Do we like David Guetta?

Our score: 7 out of 10. No harmful words of his own turned up, plus real charity work, set against Saudi shows he defended and a clumsy club stunt.

The Saudi gigs are the main knock on him. In 2018 he played the Formula E event in Riyadh and remixed patriotic Saudi songs. Human rights activists criticised him online, and Bahraini activist Maryam al-Khawaja called his actions “oblivious”. Others said the event showed social change in the kingdom. Global News reported that neither he nor his publicists had commented at the time.

By December 2021 he was ready to talk about it. Ahead of a show at the MDLBeast festival, he told the Associated Press “I don’t play for politicians, I play for people”. He said he was happy to be part of the event and called women now being able to attend his concerts “a huge evolution”. Human rights groups argued that celebrity appearances like this help whitewash the country’s record. Where you land depends on whether you read it as helping change or as helping polish an image.

Then there's the Ibiza stunt. In 2015 a promo video for his Pacha residency showed white models in Native American headdresses and face paint, and commenters accused him of racism and cultural appropriation. Pacha pulled the video, and a second clip of a horse in the club drew a petition and a pile-on from Deadmau5. Vice's take was that it showed a bloke out of touch rather than a bigot, and no response from Guetta was reported. It reads as tone-deaf, and nothing in what I found suggests it was meant to hurt anyone.

On the harm test, the record is thin but clean. I found nothing from him on trans people, women, migrants or the climate, and no pattern of working with people who push harm. The only real mark is the Saudi work, which is about where he plays and what he said defending it. That earns an asterisk, not a fail.

Nothing new has turned up on him lately beyond tour and release news. I couldn't open a full profile, so the backstory and anything from 2022 on is thinner than I'd like. An unusually long run as a headline DJ and no scandal about how he treats people is a decent record. If you want a spotless one, the Saudi shows are the part to weigh.