Ed Sheeran Macklemore | That's where the friendship ends

Where did the supporting program go? Ed Sheeran is now alone in the USA. Photo: dpa/PA Wire/Doug Peters Media Assignments A very long time ago there was a generally laughed-at crooner hit in whose chorus F.R.David sang the line “Words don’t come easy”. It was of course a love song and was about longing, insecurity and the fear of misunderstandings. Now the song is suddenly a commentary from the culture industry for the culture industry.

US rapper Macklemore only needed two words to be excluded from British superstar Ed Sheeran's US tour: "Free Palestine." As is often the case with this topic, the context doesn't matter, it clicks and clicks too well. The stadium owners said these two words made Jewish people feel “hurt.” But what did Macklemore even mean? That Hamas should disappear from Palestine? Or Israel's army? The PLO or Israeli settlers or all of them together? Unclear. However, Macklemore has appeared quite stupid on the subject several times, which the organizers pointed out.

Macklemore says the main reason he wanted to open for Sheeran was to say those two words "that are very close to my heart." Because he can no longer do that, other artists who were supposed to support Sheeran have now declared that they no longer want to take part: Finneas O'Connell (Billie Eilish's brother), Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe and the band Beog.

Now Ed Sheeran looks stupid. Macklemore is supposedly his friend, but he hasn't done anything or wanted to do anything for him. Two words and nothing is easy anymore. So criticism of ideology works after all. But Sheeran, who like F.R. David sings close to the tearjerker, wants to appear apolitical and keeps his opinion to himself. Maybe it's even better that way.

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