Within Temptation vocalist Sharon Den Adel doesn’t regret their support for the Pride post because it helped clean up their follower base.
“Well, to be honest, I’m not sure if I should say this on radio, but I was a bit shocked of our own audience in a way, because we reached actually 4,2 [420,000] and we lost a two [20,000], because we made an announcement, like, okay, just a post about Pride [the yearly event for acceptance and visibility of the LGBTIQ+ community] in the Netherlands. And we lost 0,2 just by one post saying equality stands for…” the singer replied when asked by Germany’s Radio Bob!, if she noticed the band reaching 400,000 Instagram followers.
Den Adel continued, “I don’t care about losing those, but it was a shock to me. So many people were appalled by that message, it’s, like, what is the world going to? I was a bit sad about that. It was, like, okay, because you said something about equality and how we see people, how we treat people. Wow. It was a shock…”
“It’s reflecting how people are thinking about how things are changing in society sometimes by things you post. It’s, like, wow. I didn’t see this coming. But anyway, anyway, I’m not regretting it at all,” she added. “So I’m really happy that it happened because it just cleans up the database [Laughs]. Who cannot stand for equality for everyone? It’s, like, come on.”
Within Temptation also often share their political views. Last year, Sharon talked about dealing with criticism, explaining, “Well, I believe in democracy. And I think also we have a voice, and I believe in debating. What I hope to do with this — we’re not lashing out or criticizing anything.”
She added, “It’s more like we try to keep the subject alive because just by talking about it, we can bring other people to new ideas or get a little bit deeper into the subject or start being interested in the subject and thinking about what is the right thing to do.”
Sharon and her bandmates expressed their political views in songs like ‘Wireless’ and ‘Bleed Out,’ which cover topics like the war in Ukraine and the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran.