Ed Sheeran support acts quit after Macklemore ‘Free Palestine’ row - The Latest

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:10I think that Ed Sheeran in a lot of ways has wanted to have his cake and eat it. And I think that this might be something which culturally is irrecoverable for him. I wanted to stand up here and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart. Free Palestine. Macklemore directly challenged Ed Sheeran and said, you know, this is also your responsibility. I think it will prove harm to Ed Sheeran. He loses something which is more intelligible and that's a kind of standing with, you know, for want of a better word, the people. From the Guardians today in Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Half.

0:47it looks like the megastar Ed Sheeran might need to warm up or support for himself in the next few shows of his major global tour or at least the US leg of it after a major controversy Jason Okendaya your assistant opinion editor this started when the rapper Matt Clamore used his support slot to make a political statement in support of Palestine. What happened? Yes, so it was on the 4th of September at Ed Sheeran's show in New Jersey. And Macklemore really made the effort to go to the front of the stage. This is a massive stadium. And he was very intentional in kind of saying that, you know, there's a reason why I wanted to do this at the stadium today.

1:34And that's so that I can say those two words, Free Palestine. I said free Palestine.

1:44I want those words to be loud and clear. So the people from Gaza all the way to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten them. Yeah, which was met with a huge cheer from the audience. Macklemore then performed his song Hins Hall, which condemns Israel's military actions in Gaza. And a video behind him showed scenes of destruction and devastation in Gaza on a big screen. And videos of that were shared very widely online. But since then, and quite quickly after, he was pulled from all forthcoming shows in the rest of the US leg of Ed Sheeran's tour. What do we know about the reasons why that decision was made and by who?

2:33Yeah, so the group Stop Anti-Semitism basically accused Macklemore of ambushing fans with anti-Israel propaganda. And this was particularly shared by the musician Pink as well. and so that kind of snowballed and of course the initial reaction to macklemore had been really triumphant people i thought this was an incredibly brave use of this platform there was a lot of appreciation there was a lot of praise for him yeah it was all over my social media and i'm sure lots of lots of people listening yeah absolutely um and then it became very consequential um so it was clear that robert carth one of the owners of the fourth coming stadiums for the tour also intervened.

3:13So subsequently, Macklemore was dropped. Okay, okay. We should mention that Macklemore got into some trouble, was accused of anti-Semitism in 2014 when he wore a costume that was deemed to be very offensive. He apologised for that, but that has played into this somewhat, hasn't it? Yeah, definitely. The kind of combination of that costume, which people felt played on caricatures of Jewish people in combination now with having a pro-Palestinian stance has been seen as you know provocative by some people who want to conflate that pro-Palestinian stance with anti-Jewish hatred or with anti-Semitism.

3:54And yeah it feels like we're talking about two very different things here. A costume that is clearly problematic, clearly had anti-Semitic undertones and for which McLemore apologised, but then also an artist using one of the biggest stages of his career many years later in the times that we're living through now to address a crowd of tens of thousands of people and say the words Free Palestine in support of Palestinian people. It seems to me that that does not deserve censorship, nor does it warrant him being pulled from the rest of the US leg of this tour. Macklemore has released a very strongly worded statement as a result of what's happened.

4:36What's he said? So he basically directly challenged Ed Sheeran and said, you know, this is also your responsibility. Macklemore is basically saying that, you know, this is very typical of Ed Sheeran and that he is apolitical and that he has been silent over the atrocities committed in Gaza. And I think what is interesting is that he was also very warm. He was very appreciative. He called Ed, his brother. Ed Sheeran in this statement, the response basically said, Malcolm will ask to join my tour and I let him. So there was a sort of asymmetry in the sympathies or the warmth that was exchanged there.

5:08Yeah, yeah, but clearly a sense of a relationship that has fractured. I mean, Ed Sheeran has also responded by saying he's not political, but comments that he made in support of Ukraine have resurfaced in light of all of this so that again doesn't ring quite true. There weren't only comments in support of Ukraine he also performed at a concert for Ukraine so he needs to be clear on exactly why this is an issue that he's decided to say you know well there is pain on both sides but you know I can't possibly take a stance and I don't want to get political here. It's clearly on this issue that he has decided to sit up and there may well be very good reasons for that but he needs to be honest it's not that he's just apolitical.

5:52Yeah and it is having huge consequences for his tour and indeed there's some speculation today that the tour might need to be cancelled because all support artists have now pulled out again also releasing statements. What kinds of things have we been hearing about why people feel it's no longer possible for them to take part in this tour? Something that I actually think is interesting to draw attention to is the Irish identity of three of those acts. So Phineas, who is Irish American, Bioga, who are an Irish band, and also Aaron Rowe, who is Irish as well. And Rowe's statement in particular was quite striking, because he basically said that, you know, as Irish people, we know well the reality of famine, of genocide, of violent occupation too.

6:33Yeah, an incredibly strong statement from Rowe and from Sheeran's own band, who've now quit. I suppose it's just interesting that there are people who consider themselves friends of Sheeran who are speaking out so strongly about this, but he is still choosing this apolitical stance. And it's just this feels like this interesting dichotomy at the moment that we have, you know, mega stars like Bad Bunny, who used his huge Super Bowl halftime show to make a massive political point about anti-ice, you know, anti-Trump immigration policies, pro-multiculturalism. And yet we have this other tier of huge pop stars like Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, who seem to want to conceal their politics now.

7:21And I'm wondering why you think that is. Like, what is the backlash that they fear? Because in this case, this could prove actively harmful to Ed Sheeran. And I think it will prove harmful to Ed Sheeran. Like, he's always going to have his money and his success. But he loses something which is more intelligible. And that's a kind of reputation. And that's a kind of standing with, you know, for want of a better word, the people, right? He kind of presents himself as this kind of everyman. And someone like Bad Bunny, as you say, at the Super Bowl show, but also at the Grammys as well when he wins album of the year you know one of the highlights of his life he takes that moment also to say ice out before I say thanks to God I'm gonna say ice out so people want more from stars they want more from celebrities because they're also seeing very very big stars take those risks and make those statements and obviously that hasn't always been an easy position with that throughout history as well right um if you think back to say 2003 and the chicks who were then known as the dixie chicks um so they're at a concert in london and this is just before the invasion of iraq and they basically said you know we're ashamed of you know america's war and we're ashamed that um george bush is from texas as well and they go from being the top of the country industry to overnight being total outcasts they're blacklisted on radio stations there are fans who are literally smashing up vinyls and cds that they had bought um from the dixie chicks and it took years and years and years for their reputations to recover but something that's important to note then is that when they said that american support for the war was incredibly high so they were really riding against public opinion that's not the case now in the context of the genocide in gaza um you could not be at a more favorable time for public opinion in the uk and in the us as well we're not in the sort of early days of the war uh where people either didn't know what they think or they had only looked at the hamas attack and thought well you know clearly israel is under attack and it has this right to defend itself so it's like i think people are thinking you know this is three years in a lot of people are very clear on what the position of this is and what this actually looks like people are much more comfortable openly calling this a genocide and still at this point you're saying there's pain on both sides you're trying to be neutral you're sort of like abdicating any kind of responsibility and i guess there's a broader question of you know like how much do we expect from celebrities what should we you know ask from them and it's like well if you want to wear certain aesthetics if you want to be a certain kind of person if you want to advocate for ukraine you should also be ready to answer for yourself on some of these incredibly consequential questions about global wars that are going on genocides that are going on as well so i think that ed sheeran in a lot of ways has wanted to have his cake and eat it and I think that this might be something which culturally is irrecoverable for him.

10:09Yeah well history has been very kind to the chicks but perhaps may not be so kind to Ed Sheeran. Jason thank you so much. Thank you. That's it for today my huge thanks to Jason Okundaya who is assistant opinion editor at The Guardian you can keep up with all our coverage of this story over at theguardian.com and before we go I really recommend that you listen to our sister podcast Stateside with Kyan Carter. Tech columnist Taylor Loren joins Carter Sherman to discuss the growing calls to ban young teens from social media. Thanks for listening to this episode of The Latest. Today in Focus will be back in your feeds tomorrow morning.

10:45The Latest will be back tomorrow night. This episode was produced by Angus Neal. The senior producer was Ryan Ramgobin. The executive producer was Zoe Hitch and it was presented by me, Lucy Hoff.

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