Curating game soundtracks is becoming an increasingly difficult job. You need to keep abreast of all the latest artists, find music that matches a game's vibe and after all that, you have to keep track of the ever-growing stack of celebrity legal issues. Singer D4vd is a suspect in the murder of a 14-year-old girl, so his track What Are You Waiting For has quietly been removed from Madden 26.
Police discovered Celeste Rivas' body in a vehicle registered to the singer, whose full name is David Anthony Burke. He hasn't been arrested yet, but that's a development that looks increasingly likely with each passing day. A grand jury is currently hearing witnesses, and TMZ is reporting that it will vote on indictments. Rivas had been missing since February 2024.
EA Sports is just one of the entities understandably getting out of the D4vd business as fast it can. Australia's Spilt Milk Festival removed the singer from its lineup, releasing a statement clarifying the obvious reasons.
“Last week we removed d4vd from our website and marketing out of respect for the unfolding story,” Spilt Milk said in a statement.
“We can now confirm d4vd will not perform at Spilt Milk, and we are working on a replacement booking which we’ll announce as soon as it’s finalised.”
EA Sports hasn't commented and likely won't, leaving the numerous other parties which D4vd had partnerships with to navigate this tricky news cycle. As a popular singer before these tragic developments, he also worked with Fortnite, who used his song Locked and Loaded.
As has been the case with celebrity murder cases from Fatty Arbuckle to O.J. Simpson, even if D4vd manages to elude prison there's a strong possibility his career is effectively over.