Bastille frontman Dan Smith has worn a pin featuring the colours of the Ukrainian flag to the NME Awards in a show of solidarity with the country.
The chart-topping singer, 35, also sported a t-shirt featuring blue and yellow as he arrived at London’s Brixton Academy for the event on Wednesday.
International music acts including Green Day, Louis Tomlinson and The Killers have cancelled concerts in Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, with groups such as Massive Attack and The Who also showing solidarity with those affected by the conflict.
We’re all watching in horror and feeling helpless. Here are some organizations that are doing work to help: https://t.co/itpeIJ3dNh 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/RtDMqyr6GP
— BASTILLE (@bastille) February 28, 2022
Speaking on the red carpet, Smith told the PA news agency: “Like everyone else, I have just been glued to the news and to Twitter for the last few days, for the last few weeks.
“Seeing what is happening in Ukraine unfurling is absolutely horrendous.
“I obviously feel a bit strange coming to something like tonight which is meant to be fun and celebratory about music. It is innately quite frivolous.”
Speaking about his decision to wear the pin, Smith added: “I guess it is just a way to show to anyone who is watching that we are massively thinking about everyone in Ukraine and doing everything we can to lend our support and try and fundraise for an absolutely horrendous situation that is completely unthinkable.”
Bastille have encouraged their fans to donate to a number of causes, such as Unicef and War Child UK, via their official social media accounts.
Smith added: “We are just a bunch of guys in bands but I feel like there is this platform to try and, hopefully in a non-exhaustive way, talk about things that matter and help in whatever tiny, minuscule way we can.
“Because ultimately we all watch things like this happening on the news and this f****** war … you can’t help but feel incredibly helpless.
“It is just a natural human instinct to want to try and be vaguely useful in whatever way we can.”
More than 2,000 civilians have died since the invasion, Ukraine’s state emergency service said, although that figure has not been independently verified.