Imagine Dragons Appear at Writers Strike to Perform

Imagine Dragons are advocating alongside The Writers Guild of America. 

The Grammy Award-winning band brought their talents to the Netflix picket line on Tuesday (May 9) to support the screenwriters fighting for better “compensation and equity structures.” During the spontaneous street concert, Imagine Dragons performed their 2012 hit “Radioactive” from their Night Visions and “Whatever It Takes.” 

Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds and Daniel Wayne Sermon delivered the tracks while standing on a green bus bench. Strikers with picket signs created a human circle around the musicians and sang along outside of Netflix’s headquarters in Los Angeles. 

The group pressed pause on the state-of-the-art Mercury World Tour to perform for the protesters. The hitmakers embarked on the run in early February. The tour is expected to end on July 16 in Paris, France. 

The platinum-selling artists are some of the few A-listers who have displayed their solidarity with creatives nationwide. Most recently, comedian Pete Davidson passed out pizza in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to writers on strike. A handful of Ted Lasso writers and actor Jason Sudeikis joined activists outside of Warner Bros., and Jay Leno walked the lines in L.A. passing out donuts. 

It’s been more than 15 years since the writers went on strike. They are currently two weeks in since the screenwriters walked out and pushed back on Holywood’s largest corporations. The strike could affect the Emmy Awards, scheduled for September 18, and derail multiple season premieres. 

Notable songsmith Justin Tranter, who has credits with Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, and Fall Out Boy, recently shared that the writers of the W.G.A. are “inspiring” – making the music industry believe songwriters are next. 

“We need to fight this fight and find a way. I don’t have the answer at this very moment, but an extreme change is needed,” he told Rolling Stone. “Songwriters literally can’t unionize, and without a union to support us, it would take every songwriter in the world to just agree we wouldn’t work.

“There are amazing new songwriters I work with every week who have streams in the billions who need to drive Uber or do OnlyFans because they can’t pay their rent. The WGA is inspiring and amazing, and I hope it inspires the songwriting community that we shouldn’t be so afraid. If we all lock arms, we can make a change.”

Photo: Eric Ray Davidson