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Outrage has been caused by the band’s participation in the Park Live 2026 festival, which will take place in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Gorillaz are scheduled to perform on August 22. On social media, users point out that the festival is organized by an agency connected to concerts for open supporters of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Many consider Park Live to be essentially a Russian event that was moved to Kazakhstan. Its main sponsor is the Russian company Yandex, which has been accused of spreading propaganda and manipulating news to legitimize the war in Ukraine.

However, Gorillaz have already shown their position and their willingness to attract Russian listeners, sending them a signal of encouragement in a new song.

One of Gorillaz’s new songs contains a phrase in Russian. On the album The Mountain, released on February 27, the track Delirium features the voice of the late poet and musician Mark Edward Smith. At 2 minutes and 38 seconds into the track, an unknown voice says in Russian: “Hello, my name is Vlad, and I’m the Tooth Fairy.” The album also features five other languages: English, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic, and Yoruba.

The band has not commented on the appearance of this character, although one of the track’s authors is someone named Vlad.

At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Gorillaz said they supported ordinary people in Ukraine and those in Russia who are against the war, and that they hoped to perform for them again as soon as possible.

Apparently, they meant performing sooner for the second group of people — entertaining Russians who live comfortably abroad while also helping fund Russians who are interested in murdering Ukrainians.

An interesting business plan.