On Saturday night, singer-songwriter Regina Spektor played at Portland’s Revolution Hall, and a few people in the audience interrupted her set by yelling, “Free Palestine!” Spektor, who is Jewish and who emigrated from the Soviet Union to the US as a kid, is a vocal supporter of Israel amidst its ongoing and horrific campaign of genocide and starvation in Gaza. Over the past few years, she has decried the “propaganda” of anti-genocide protesters and taken public issue with peers like Björk. As a result, she has appeared on the Zionists In Music Instagram account. During that moment of protest on Saturday, Spektor’s show ground to a halt.

The interruption in Spektor’s Portland show came 10 songs in, before she performed her song “Poor Little Rich Boy.” According to some people in attendance, at least one protester charged towards the stage, and was yelling “free Palestine” as security removed them. After that, Spektor said, “You’re just yelling at a Jew. I don’t know what he thinks he’s doing. I really appreciate the security. We had a really hard time last night, when I said, ‘Shalom aleichem.'” Most of the crowd responded by cheering for Spektor, and several people yelled, “Am Yisrael Chai,” a Hebrew phrase that means “the people of Israel live.” Some audience members tittered. Others shushued each other.

While all this was happening, Spektor looked for the first audience member who yelled out: “Where are you?” Evidently, he was already leaving. Spektor continued: “I thought this was different than the internet. This is real life.” Audience members attempted to shout down another protester, and Spektor said, “You can leave the show if you want. This is not an internet comment section. I know that you are mistaking my show for a YouTube video.”

The audience member replied, “I’m watching dying children. That hurts.” Spektor said, “I think you should go because this is not the place for that conversation. I’m a real person who came here to play music. If anybody wants to walk out, this is your chance. Does anybody else want to take a walk? You can.” At least a few people did get up and walk out, and Spektor went on: “The only reason I even speak English is because I came here to escape this shit. I only speak English because I came from a country where people were treating Jews as others, and now I’m being othered here, and it sucks. It’ll be nice if one of my family’s generation didn’t have to go to a new country and learn a new language, just stay put, have nice lives, you guys.”

This is an internet comment section, and it’s also a YouTube video. Outside the room where she’s playing live, I don’t think Spektor will find an audience quite so receptive to that kind of self-pity in the face of mass slaughter and starvation. The video of that moment is an extremely uncomfortable watch. You can experience it for yourself below.

@stereogum Regina Spektor’s show at Portland’s Revolution Hall (7/26/25) was interrupted as audience members shouted at her and each other #ReginaSpektor #Portland #Palestine original sound – stereogum

A longer non-embeddable YouTube video is here.