Dispute over Palestine statements: not apolitical hedonism

T he “land of the free” is not as free as we thought. The Irish pop star Ed Sheeran is now having to find out the hard way. The 35-year-old musician started his current “Loop” tour in Australia at the beginning of January and has been traveling worldwide and in the USA for months. But because the US rapper Macklemore, who is also of Irish descent, shouted “Free Palestine” on stage at a joint concert in the US state of New Jersey and showed images of the destruction from the Gaza Strip to his song “Hind’s Hall”, Sheeran has a problem.

The tour organizer excluded Macklemore from further appearances on the tour - and in protest against this form of censorship, Ed Sheeran then dropped out of all other opening acts. Ed Sheeran is now alone and the continuation of his tour is uncertain.

Rapper Macklemore is known for his pro-Palestinian stance. He wrote protest songs like “Hind’s Hall” and expressed solidarity with the Gaza protests at US universities. Ed Sheeran knew who he was inviting to his opening act and explicitly calls 43-year-old Macklemore his friend.

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He didn't uninvite him from his tour of his own accord, but gave in to the massive pressure that concert hall owners put on him. Led by US billionaire Robert Kraft, who owns, among other things, the New England Patriots football team, they made it clear to Ed Sheeran that they would not tolerate Macklemore's attitude in their rooms. They put the gun to Ed Sheeran's chest.

In a detailed Instagram post, Ed Sheeran said he regretted excluding Macklemore from the tour. But he also writes that he doesn't want to convey his political stance to the outside world; his concerts should be places of apolitical hedonism. Now critics are accusing him of having shown a political stance in the past. Namely when it came to Russia's war against Ukraine.

In 2022, Ed Sheeran performed at a major TV benefit concert for Ukraine, recorded anti-war songs with Ukrainian musicians and thereby collected donations for humanitarian aid in the war-torn country. So it always depends on which political stance is considered acceptable and which is not.

Macklemore firmly rejects the accusation of “anti-Semitism” leveled against Macklemore by US billionaire Kraft and pro-Israel groups. The fact that the rapper Kanye West, alias Ye, recently performed in several large stadiums in the USA, such as in Los Angeles and Chicago, shows that this is not the point, but that Macklemore's criticism of Israel is a thorn in their side.

There has been no significant protest so far - even though the 49-year-old has openly played with Nazi symbolism and spread anti-Semitic conspiracy stories. There is still so much freedom in the USA.