What would an artist have to do to lose your support? How unredeemable would their actions have to be for you to decide they’re undeserving of your time or money? Should we be separating the art from the artist? The line people draw will and should vary greatly depending on the artist and how devoted the person is to their musical career. However, certain actions perpetrated by artists or public figures should indisputably lead to the demise of their career, as should be the case with David Anthony Burke, better known by his stage name, D4vd.
Though he’s been on the come-up for several years, D4vd, a singer-songwriter based in New York, recently released his first full-length album in April of this year with a tour commencing the same month. As of September 19, 2025, the tour has been cancelled completely. The cancellation came just short of two weeks after the body of Celeste Rivas, a 15-year-old girl, was found in a compact car. The car was in a tow yard, in the front trunk of a Tesla registered under D4vd’s name. The body was found dismembered, severely decomposed, and, according to the police, “may have been deceased for several weeks before the discovery of her body.” She had been reported as missing since April of 2024, only being 13 at the time of her disappearance.
Ever since this shocking event, many people who were listeners or simply aware of his music have taken to social media to share their opinions on the situation. As a result of it, the argument of whether people should continue supporting his music or not has been very prevalent with his mention — the concept of “separating the art from the artist.”
“I don’t think I’d be able to continue listening to my favorite artist if something similar happened to them. I’d feel really uncomfortable doing it,” says junior Sofia Bilbay. Like many others, she was aware of D4vd’s music but was not a listener of it. “I think separating the art from the artist applies when the artist’s beliefs don’t really impact their art. If the art and the artist are inherently very separate, you can separate them. But, a lot of the time, that’s hard because the artist puts a lot of themselves into their art.” She commented.
Though many artists separate themselves entirely from their art, that case cannot be made for D4vd. His most popular song, “Romantic Homicide” — one that many are now linking to Rivas and her death — details a toxic romantic relationship in which the narrator feels he cannot live without his lover and metaphorically ends her life when it fails. Though it was written and produced years prior to the event, the internet picked up on the eerie implications of it; considering his current situation, many believe that D4vd may have even been subtly foreshadowing his future actions.
Following this horrific event, the Internet began investigating D4vd. With bits of information and evidence, they found that the pair had quite a history with each other, one that is slowly being pieced together. This includes videos found of what seems like D4vd and Rivas together on stream after she was reported missing, an unreleased track about Rivas in which her name is directly mentioned twice (made the same year she mysteriously disappeared), and screenshots of D4vd seemingly alluding to a romantic relationship he had with her back in 2023. Most notably, authorities have found the two to have seemingly identical tattoos on both of their fingers. Though D4vd is not even a suspect in this case currently, small bits of corroboration like these make it difficult to articulate a defense for him and his actions.
Working off the assumption that D4vd was indeed deeply entangled in this crime, as it may be presumed he is, it would be incredibly morally questionable to continue supporting him. Setting aside the financial gain people would provide him by continuing to support his music, the message that people would send to the music industry by allowing someone like him to continue living on as an artist with an untarnished reputation would be drastic and deeply unforgiving. By having any past listeners or supporters of his music completely turn their backs on his artistic career, the message sent would instead be one that displays a complete and utter lack of condoning offences at this level.
