Morrissey urges Pedro Sánchez to end bullfighting before his Spain tour

Published on 23/07/2026 - 18:35 GMT+2•Updated 18:44

Few figures in the performing arts have turned animal-rights activism into such an inseparable extension of their career as Morrissey. Even before he steps on stage, the former Smiths frontman is already making waves in Spain. Just days before he is due to perform in Barcelona and Madrid, the British musician has sent a letter to Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, urging him to push for an end to bullfighting.

The singer, a vegetarian since his teens and one of the most combative voices in defence of animals for decades, calls on the Spanish premier to use his "influence" to bring an end to a tradition which, in his view, "continues to tarnish" Spain's international image. "Please," he writes in the letter, "do something the entire world will love: end this barbarity."

The letter, released with the backing of animal-rights organisation PETA, comes at a time when bullfighting has returned to the centre of Spain's political debate. On 15 July, a group of 52 MPs once again lodged in the Congress of Deputies the citizens' initiative (source in Spanish) "Not My Culture", which calls for bullfighting to be stripped of its status as protected cultural heritage. The proposal had already gathered the support of more than 715,000 signatures.

PETA is backing (source in Spanish) the campaign with an international petition addressed to Sánchez himself. The organisation argues that every year thousands of bulls suffer "a slow and painful death" in Spanish bullrings and insists that public opposition to these shows continues to grow both inside and outside the country.

The cause, however, is not simply a reaction to his Spanish tour. It is part of Morrissey's artistic DNA. In 2014 he released "The Bullfighter Dies", one of the most talked-about songs on his album "World Peace Is None of Your Business". In it he mocks the figure of the bullfighter and repeats a chorus that ended up becoming a statement of intent: "The bullfighter dies and nobody cries" (in Spanish: "El torero muere y nadie le llora").

Over the years, the musician has used interviews, concerts and statements to denounce meat consumption, factory farming, animal experimentation and bullfighting. He even, as PETA itself did, went so far as to ask the late Pope Francis to issue a public condemnation of bullfighting.

For his followers, that commitment is an inseparable part of his persona; for his detractors, yet another example of his tendency to turn any public appearance into a controversy.

And he rarely goes unnoticed when he sets foot in Spain. This March he cancelled the concert he was due to give in Valencia, saying he was in a "catatonic" state after being unable to sleep because of the noise of the city, in the thick of preparations for the Fallas festival. The explanation fed a reputation that has dogged him for years: that of an artist as brilliant as he is unreliable.

It was not an isolated episode. In 2025 he also called off at the last minute his performance at Las Noches del Botánico, in Madrid, for medical reasons. According to specialist website Muzikalia, Morrissey has already chalked up more than 350 cancelled concerts over the course of his career. Now, even before his Spanish tour begins, he has once again managed to get people talking about him. And, once more, not just because of his music.