Roisin Murphy shakes off puberty blockers furore to score her first solo top 10 album

Roisin Murphy has defied cancel culture and secured her first ever solo top 10 album following a row over puberty blockers.

The Irish singer faced a backlash and had London gigs cancelled after voicing concerns about “vulnerable” and “mixed-up kids” being prescribed puberty blockers.

The BBC cleared planned radio programmes featuring the stars’ back catalogue, a move that it insisted was not linked to her views.

Despite what supporters have branded attempts to “cancel” the singer for her comments, Murphy has achieved her first ever top 10 album.

Her new release, Hit Parade, made its debut at number five this week, according to the Official Charts Company, as the American star Olivia Rodrigo claimed the top spot.

It is Murphy’s highest solo chart placing, beating her 2020 album, Roisin Machine, which made it to number 14 in the UK charts.

Effort to counteract cancel culture

This week’s albums charts became a battleground for free-speech advocates and gender-critical supporters of Murphy, who urged fans to buy her record in solidarity, and at one stage in the race pushed Hit Parade up to number two.

This effort to counteract cancel culture came following a backlash against her criticism of puberty blockers, which are often given to children deemed trans to arrest sexual development.

Murphy had posted on her Facebook account: “Puberty blockers are f------, absolutely desolate, big pharma laughing all the way to the bank. Little mixed-up kids are vulnerable and need to be protected, that’s just true.”

Murphy, 50, added: “Please don’t call me a terf [trans-exclusionary radical feminist], please don’t keep using that word against women.”

She later apologised for what may have been “hurtful”, and pledged to “bow out of this conversation within the public domain”.

However, two London gigs scheduled for her album launch were cancelled as the singer faced an online backlash.

A BBC insider was this week forced to insist that the broadcaster “does not ban artists” after a raft of BBC Radio 6 programmes centred on Murphy’s back catalogue were wiped from the schedule in the wake of her comments.

Archive interviews and highlights from the singer’s live shows were set to air on Sept 26 following the release of her new album, but these have been replaced by a selection of appearances by the rapper Little Simz.

The BBC said that the change was to be part of rotation and intended to align its schedule with National Poetry Day.