Ed Sheeran was “very naive” to think dropping that rapper Macklemore from his tour over his support for Palestine without a public backlash, a journalist has argued.
Typically, Sheeran stays out of politics; but this week he has been plunged into one of the most contentious issues of all time - Israel/Palestine.
During the first two nights of Sheeran’s US tour, support act Macklemore made a number of references to the suffering of the Palestinian people during the recent Gaza war, to the consternation of many supporters of Israel.
Stadium owners, reportedly led by New England Patriots owner, Robert Kraft, put pressure on organisers to drop Macklemore, which they duly did.
In a post on Instagram, Sheeran described it as “the promoter's decision, it was not mine”.
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However, his defence has not stopped ticket prices for his shows plunging and now the cloud of controversey hangs over his entire tour.
On The Claire Byrne Show, Sinéad O’Carroll of the Journal.ie said Sheeran failed to understand the depth of feeling about the war in Gaza.
“There's obviously a political lens in that that I think he probably didn't realise the backlash, which is very naive,” she argued.
“And there is the personal that he knows these two men very well.”
Ms O’Carroll added that as well as a geopolitical issue, the decision to drop Macklemore is also fundamentally a question of friendship.
“There's also just lads who are mates and he was choosing between two mates like he's friends with Kraft and he's friends with Macklemore,” she said.
“But in the statement, he said Macklemore asked ‘could he come on my tour?’.
“So, it's very clear which friend he was choosing there because he was framing it as in, ‘I was doing my mate a favour because he begged me to let him on the tour’.
“Rather than, ‘I was putting my tour together and I chose Macklemore to come with me.’”
Can the tour possibly be a success? Sheeran’s other support acts have also pulled out in solidarity with Macklemore.
All argued that the rapper should be entitled to express his views on Palestine.
“I imagine he'll find local session musicians - he's used to being one man and a guitar out in big stadiums,” Ms O’Carroll said.
“So, I'd imagine that probably isn't worrying him.
“People who are going to turn up are obviously turning up to support him - so, that probably won't worry him.
“But I think his sense of self and a sense of identity and who he is, because everybody around him, he had obviously handpicked it to a significant degree, has left the stage.
“And that must be a very unusual place for someone like Ed Sheeran.”
Main image: Ed Sheeran. Picture by: Alamy.com.
