On September 4th, on stage during Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour, Macklemore told the crowd, “A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: Free Palestine,” and within two weeks he was dropped entirely from the tour. What happened in those two weeks was the swift and heavy-handed effort to silence free speech even at the celebrity level. 

When it comes to speaking out about global politics and the state of the world, people have very mixed feelings about whether celebrities, whose work is “for everyone” to enjoy, should make their stances clear. Does it dilute their fanbase to exercise their right to vote and to tell people who they voted for? Should it change how they are perceived? In our current cultural and political landscape, simply calling for awareness can be perceived as taking a side. What about when there isn’t a “side” to take, but rather a cause to fight for?

Just two days after Macklemore’s address, the Israeli-American Council published a petition calling for Macklemore to be removed as an artist on the Loop Tour. In it they wrote, “The issue is not whether Macklemore has the right to hold political views. The question is where the line should be drawn when an opening act uses a global concert platform to advance a one-sided political agenda.” The so-called political agenda was a beloved musician sharing that he believes “every single human being that walks this earth deserves [to] know safety and peace before they know the sound of violence.” To call that a political view is to call safety not a right. 

That said, the images Macklemore displayed on the screens behind his address to the crowd were painful and heartstopping images from Gaza that would haunt anyone, especially children, who were in the crowd. The argument that this was not the time or place for these images can surely be made, but just because fans weren’t expecting to see something so jarring should not make the action ground for his removal. Macklemore has done what many celebrities have started to do during award show speeches, red carpet interviews and social media posts; he decided to speak straight to his audience rather than letting the corrupt algorithm dictate who gets to see what. The atrocities happening in Gaza were not chosen, and Macklemore decided to spread a taste of that same feeling of unease and distress throughout the crowd of partying fans as a reminder of the privilege of safety and indifference.

The drama surrounding this “incident” progressed to an even larger scale as other musicians began to support Macklemore and his words during the concert. Pink was the first, with a mixed response that covered both her bases. She wrote on Instagram, “Palestinians deserve a future that honors their humanity and their aspirations,” but disagreed with how Macklemore went about his support, saying that addressing “a stadium full of music-loving families, with violent images from a war on the screens, dedicated a song to the movement of his choice, and then took the mic to tell all of the Jews in the stadium that it wasn’t about them.” 

On September 14th, Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour promoter, Messina Touring Group, dropped Macklemore from the tour. From there, chaos ensued. Robert Kraft, the billionaire who owns Gillette Stadium where Sheeran was touring, refused to let Macklemore perform there because he believed that his advocacy was offensive to the Jewish community. His response specifically called out Macklemore’s concluding statement on September 5th where he said, “To all of my Jewish brothers and sisters: Criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you.” As bits of dialogue and conversation are taken and used to fuel aggression and sow disagreement, the unraveling of Sheeran’s Loop tour was only just beginning.

Being that it is his tour, Sheeran responded with this message, “I respect Macklemore’s strength of purpose to stand up and shout for what he believes, however, there is room for multiple approaches to the same end: peace. I choose to use my fame and platform to be a place of safety and sanctuary, to maintain diplomacy and keep conversations open, not closed.” Staying as neutral as possible, the UK pop artist hoped to maintain positive energy around his tour, but despite getting what they wanted, was met with a strong blow by the same group that hit Macklemore: the Israeli-American Council. They criticized Sheeran for not standing up when Macklemore took the stage and stopping him from continuing to speak out, “This is Ed Sheeran’s stage, it’s the tour that carries his name — and so the responsibility for what happens on it is his too.”

From September 15th onward, the rest of Sheeran’s openers decided to pull out of the tour, including Aaron Rowe, Finneas, Lukas Graham and Beoga with Lukas Graham writing, “We should be able to speak about war, about civilians being killed, about children who deserve to grow up.” Each spoke out in their own way condemning the ejection of Macklemore and showing their support for freeing Palestine. 

Sheeran’s tour is still going on and refunds have been made available for his Gillette show. Hayley Williams has announced that she will be adding Sheeran’s openers to her tour pre-show playlist to show support for speaking out and for Palestine. Macklemore has announced that he will be going on a Free Palestine tour in which proceeds from the tour will go to organizations supporting Palestinians. While Sheeran himself shied away from supporting Palestine after nearly three years of war, Macklemore and his statement has brought exactly the right level of attention to the censoring of celebrities on current events. Poignantly calling out Kraft in his new tour announcement, Macklemore said, “When the billionaire class can decide which voices are allowed on stage and which ones are too dangerous to hear, everyone should be paying attention.” 

Sources:

https://www.billboard.com/lists/ed-sheeran-tour-drops-macklemore-timeline-controversy/ 

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/macklemore-petition-removal-ed-sheeran-tour-free-palestine-1236335347/

https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/ed-sheeran-tickets-refunds-ticketmaster-gillette/

https://stereogum.com/2511718/hayley-williams-forest-hills-pre-show-playlist-featured-all-the-acts-who-exited-ed-sheerans-tour/news