Few figures in the performing arts have woven animal-rights activism as tightly into their career as Morrissey. Even before stepping on stage, the former Smiths frontman is already making waves in Spain. Just days before performing in Barcelona and Madrid, the British musician has sent a letter to the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, urging him to help bring bullfighting to an end.
The singer, a vegetarian since his adolescence and one of the most combative voices in defence of animals for decades, asks the head of the Spanish government to use his "influence" to put an end to a tradition which, in his view, "still tarnishes" Spain's international image. "Please," he writes in the letter, "do something the whole world will love: end this barbarity".
