English singer-songwriter Louise Distras has been banned from a music streaming service for her allegedly ‘transphobic’ views, she announced on Thursday, August 14. Her exclusion came just one day after signing up for Ampwall, with company executive Charles Shapleigh emailing to explain the decision:
we received complaints about your presence. You’re probably aware that your anti-rhetoric has made you a public figure …. If you ever change your attitude and public positions about trans women we’d be glad to have you back.
Distras called this “not just a petty ban [but] full blown cultural terrorism” and said she was not a “programmable drone who will abandon biological facts and common sense just to scrape by.”
Her removal from Ampwall follows a similar ban from the larger platform Bandcamp in 2023. Loss of access to music streaming services is a serious threat to working musicians, as other record industry-based revenues are drying up amid a shift to digital platforms.
The platform’s conduct comes at a difficult time for the singer-songwriter, who was investigated then cleared by police in 2023 over three separate ‘gender critical’ public comments she made, including a GB News interview, before being ‘stalked’ by a trans activist.
In 2025, the same interviews were used as part of a new criminal case against Distras, alleging she poses a threat of harm to … her alleged stalker. At the time of writing, this allegation had been scheduled for a pre-trial hearing at Leeds Crown Court in July, but remains unresolved.
This latest spiteful campaign against Distras coincides with ongoing attempts to force John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2006), off the longlist for the Polari Prize literary award, also because he has criticised transgender ideology.
