Do we like Pink?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Years of showing up for LGBTQ+ people, banned books and bushfire relief, with one contested repost and a resurfaced old video.
The recent stoush: after Macklemore performed at an Ed Sheeran show at MetLife Stadium, Pink reshared a Stop Antisemitism video attacking it. Fans accused her of taking a side on Gaza. She replied in a long statement that a repost isn't a statement, that she doesn't speak for any government, and that Palestinians deserve a future that honours their humanity.
Where you land depends on how you read it. Some saw a Jewish artist reacting to what she felt excluded Jews in the crowd. Others saw her amplifying a group's words she hadn't written, which she concedes. She said she has never asked for another artist to be silenced. It's a contested call, not a pattern of harm.
Around the same time, her 2006 'Stupid Girls' video resurfaced online. Critics on X said one scene took a swipe at a real 19-year-old celebrity. The outlet that covered it reported no response from Pink. It's twenty years old and a satire gone sour for some viewers, so it's a mark, but it's not the story of her career.
On the harm check she's solid. At the January 2025 FireAid concert she gave a shout-out to 'every other gender that absolutely exists', which was read as a dig at Trump's order on sex. In 2023 she gave away 2,000 banned books at Florida shows, and in 2018 she said it boggled her mind that money was spent 'trying to ban love'. Nothing turned up on dodgy company she keeps.
The good stuff is real money, not just trophies. She pledged $500,000 to Australian bushfire services in 2020, and gave $500,000 each to a Philadelphia hospital fund and Los Angeles's COVID fund the same year. She also isn't afraid of a fight: in 2019 she refused to apologise for her 'very polarizing' opinions.
So the verdict: she's loud, opinionated and sometimes gets it wrong in public, but she turns up for the people we'd want her to. The Macklemore row is worth knowing about and worth judging for yourself. It doesn't outweigh years of backing queer people, women and readers.