Ed Sheeran’s tour of North and South America was plunged into chaos Tuesday when four of his supporting acts — including his touring band — abruptly quit in solidarity with the rapper Macklemore, who was dropped for making pro-Palestinian comments onstage.
Hours after Sheeran posted on social media about Macklemore’s ouster and attributed the decision to the tour’s promoters, Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga, the Danish band Lukas Graham, and Finneas posted on Instagram that they were leaving the tour.
Rowe and Lukas Graham would have been replacements for Macklemore on Sheeran’s remaining U.S. dates, while Beoga was serving as Sheeran’s touring band. Finneas, who is Billie Eilish’s brother and musical collaborator, was due to tour with Sheeran in South America later this year.
“Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed,” Finneas said on Instagram. “I have decided to withdraw from my upcoming tour dates with Ed Sheeran. I stand with Palestine and its people.”
The moves by his fellow artists put enormous pressure on Sheeran, who has tried to avoid politics and taking a side in the Gaza conflict, arguing that his fans don’t come to his shows to hear politics.
Rowe and Beoga each cited their country’s history in their statements explaining their decision. “We are Irish people who understand colonialism. As founding members of the Irish Artists for Palestine movement, we are committed activists for justice and will continue to be,” Beoga said.
Rowe called Sheeran a friend and said the British singer-songwriter changed his life. “But as Irish people we know all too well about genocide, forced famine and violent occupation,” he said, adding that he couldn’t “stand by and allow billionaires to use their position of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up.”
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Solidarity is the greatest asset we have in this system which survives by dividing us. Big respect for these artists
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Ok
who has tried to avoid politics and taking a side in the Gaza conflict
This is such BS, he did a benefit show for Ukraine, not that they don’t deserve it but that is an inherently political statement. Why is it about these people in Gaza, who are also involved in a war that was started by an oppressor, don’t deserve the same respect.
To paraphrase someone in another thread, if you won’t take a stand against genocide, then you are effectively standing with it. Fuck you Ed.
Down there - he said - are people who will follow any dragon, worship any god, ignore any inequity. All out of a kind of humdrum, everyday badness. Not the really high, creative loathsomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass-produced darkness of the soul. Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality. They accept evil not because they say yes, but because they don’t say no.
– Terry Pratchett, Guard! Guards!
Ugh I need to find that book, I was just around where that super tall dwarf guy had joined the watch and then I was a bit busy for a few days and couldn’t read and then suddenly 2022 turned into 2026. I should still have it lying around somewhere after 4 or 5 moves, or at least I think I saw it a few months ago.
The whole series is just brilliant. Pratchett was an amazingly gifted author.
Hmm. Was Sheeran equally apolitical in 2022?
Responding publicly to Ukrainian band Antytila, whose members had joined Ukraine’s territorial defence, Sheeran said: “To all Ukrainians, I love you, I stand with you”, adding that he was proud to be taking part in the Concert for Ukraine fundraiser.
He described what followed the invasion as “devastating acts of violence,” called Ukraine “a proud and resilient country,” and said: “I stand with Ukraine.” He donated his YouTube royalties from the video to the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
Sheeran’s reaction was evidently very strongly pressured by Robert Kraft (billionaire, conservative, general shitheel, Patriots owner, orangeboi + regime supporter). Which, you know, simply tells us that Ed’s morals have a quantifiable dollar-value price, and that his price is lower than most people would have guessed.
Here’s the thing: I totally have a price. I’ll admit it. You roll up with a dump truck full of money and I don’t even know where I’d draw the line.
But I’m also not rich. A hundred thousand dollars would transform my life. Ed Sheeran already has unspeakable wealth, and another 100 million won’t change his life in any way that matters.
A rich person’s soul can’t be bought. When they support evil, it’s because they want to.
Israeli lobby has really done a number on folks’ perception of violence.
including his touring band
Fucking lol
That’s pretty hilarious lmao
As funny as this is, doesn’t he do a show solo? Like he gets up and loops it all himself.
He does now
His replacement and touring band are founding members for the “Irish Artists for Palestine” movement and he didn’t think they’d have a problem with this?
In the world full of Ed Sheerans, be James Blunt. 😬
good, fuck him
and fuck anyone else who continues to live life normally while this atrocity unfolds.
I get why people are pissed at Ed Sheeran. But it seems wildly unfair that billionaire Israel supporter Robert Kraft, who started this mess, is somehow getting away clean while Ed Sheeran takes all the heat.
Sheeran is taking heat for not standing up for Macklemore. Not much we can do to protest Kraft except respond to assholishness with solidarity
Tell patriots fans that their team has a political slant that you disagree with, if that is the case. The Kraft group’s other holdings are a bit too opaque for me to parse
Gillette Stadium is just about the only one an average person can boycott, besides the sports teams that is.
The rest of it is mostly paper, cardboard, other wood products, various packaging and shipping containers. If the marketing photo on the International Forest Products, LLC website is to be believed, you should avoid crap tea, scotch and cereals (Lipton, Johnny Walker and whatever Nestle cereal thing) in order to avoid their paperboard.
Oh and at least two of his four sons are also supporters of Israel. One’s trying to popularize LaCrosse in Israel, one is a known donor of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Majority_for_Israel one lacks a wikipedia page and one I couldn’t really parse any political stances from.
And, uh, avoid ICE deportation flights I guess?
Since 2017, Robert Kraft has owned two Boeing 767 private jets used by the New England Patriots.[114] As of June 2022, one of these jets had been used for at least 3 flights deporting migrants from the United States to Honduras.[114] Neither Kraft nor the Patriots commented on this revelation, but they later cancelled their contract with the charter airline that had operated these flights; in 2024, they signed a new charter contract with Omni Air International, which also operates deportation flights on behalf of ICE.
And the source [114] itself since I just copy-pasted wikipedia with citation tags: https://gillianbrockell.com/the-truth-about-ice-and-the-new-england-patriots-jets-go-seahawks/
Majority of football fans are right wing Israel supporters.
Ed Sheeran could have told Robert Kraft to go fuck himself and Ed would have most of the world on his side. He is already rich enough to not have to worry about anything.
But nope. I suppose for some people it is never enough.
Now everyone knows what a cunt and a shit friend he is.
So yeah, fuck Ed Sheeran.
Yeah, this is a MASSIVE own-goal for Sheeran. What a way to categorically fail at reading the room. Or, I guess, make it clear that your morals are for sale, for the right price.
If this actually tanks his career, I’m not gonna have any sympathy, because he just showed the world the caliber of his character, and it’s not great.
I wouldn’t say he’s getting away cleanly, every article on this heavily mentions Kraft being the one behind the pressure to drop Macklemore from the tour…
But short of another Mangioni, there’s very little anyone can do to hurt Kraft in a meaningful way.
Even if the backlash from this outright irreversibly ended his career and robbed him of every holding he has, which it won’t, he’d still have his generational wealth to tide him over till the day he died.
Let’s tax his wealth!
Would have been really easy for him to just say he supports Macklemore and Palestine. If the stadium owners try to cancel the tour, that’s lost revenue for them. Call their bluff.
All I can really do is remove Ed Sheerans music from my Playlists. Best i can do.
He already said it tho.
The problem started after they (well, Macklemore) used the stage to say it, stage that’s owned by some asshole.
I failed to find anything anti-Palestine or Gaza, but I did find him saying he supports and cares about Palestine
The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world
he doesn’t existthat the genocide in Gaza is a matter of “controversy” and “opinion” and is somehow “debatable” and “anyway, Hamas roasted babies in ovens then beheaded others on October 7th, soooooo…”Honestly, there are plenty of situations in the world that are difficult to parse and understand, and coming to a strong position on it is tricky. The Gaza genocide really ain’t one of them. I’m from N. Ireland, and currently there’s a lot of talk about a United Ireland. I was raised during the “troubles”, Catholic and surrounded by loyalists on every side, but I don’t know what the future will look like for us under an all-Ireland government. There are volumes written on the economic and educational and healthcare aspects of it, and it’s really not as clear-cut as “the partition was unjust and should be removed just as a matter of principle” or indeed that “the UK is so far off the rails that it’s skidding through the Australian Outback, we need to disconnect ASAP”. It’s like trying to wade through Finnegan’s Wake. Gaza, on the other hand, is like reading the Hungry Caterpillar then finding that huge swathes of the West are tangled up in it like it’s James Joyce during one of his LSD benders.
What’s amazing is there basically no evidence Hamas did any of the most heinous things they accused them of and a bunch of evidence that the IDF has done those things. Every accusation is a confession I guess…
Amazing how there’s seemingly thousands of videos showing IDF soldiers murdering obvious noncombatants and I don’t think I’ve seen a single video of a Palestinian doing the same (granted I’m not looking for either).
Then there’s the whole thing about Israeli intelligence supposedly keeping Hamas in power by squashing rival Palestinian groups who wanted to pursue less violent means of dealing with Israel. As well as Israel supposedly knowing the Oct raid was going to happen and allowing it so they had an excuse to ramp up the genocide.
