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Ed Sheeran’s attempt to keep politics off his stadium tour unravelled when supporting acts turned concerts into political platforms, exposing tensions over music, activism and free speech.

“There is a reason I do not use my professional platform for politics,” superstar singer Ed Sheeran said last Tuesday. “My audience includes young people, often children, of all backgrounds.” Perhaps more importantly, “those who come to my shows do not expect a political forum.” The recent drama involving Sheeran’s North American tour “The Loop” proves the wisdom of that course.

During a 5 September concert in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium (home of the New York Giants and Jets), a supporting act by the rapper Macklemore veered heavily away from music and into anti-Semitic propaganda. Macklemore, whose real name is Ben Haggerty, showed footage of the Gaza war, accused Israel of murdering children, and played a song he wrote to honour the Columbia University student takeover in 2024, all while repeating, “Free Palestine.”

Within days, Macklemore was off the tour. But, soon afterward, all of Sheeran’s other supporting acts pulled out, too — even his band.

The significance of these ruptures is conveyed by the phrase, “supporting acts.” When famous performers go on tour, they often bring along lesser-known (often up-and-coming) artists, sharing the stage with them and giving them exposure to an audience they may never reach otherwise. It is thus a privilege and a favour for other musicians to tour with the main act — especially when the main act is someone popular enough to sell out NFL stadiums.

Sheeran’s (former) band for the tour, an Irish folk group called Beoga, captured the relationship well: “We are a traditional Irish band that never saw ourselves playing in stadiums of that size, and that opportunity is not lost on us.”

Macklemore Turns a Tour Into Protest

As another supporting act, Macklemore had the same sort of relationship. Sheeran shared that “Macklemore asked to join my tour last year and I agreed, because I respect him as an artist.” After begging onto the tour of a man known for avoiding politics, Macklemore then unleashed a political tirade so jarring that he lasted only two shows and jeopardised the whole tour — but then had the gall to blame Sheeran.

“Nothing I’m writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character,” Macklemore wrote in his own lengthy response to the brouhaha. But what followed certainly seemed to impugn Sheeran’s character.

Sheeran “couldn’t get past his public-facing, ‘I don’t take sides,’” Macklemore continued. “And I get why people don’t. Taking a side can cost you. Money, brand deals, sponsorships, festivals, private shows, relationships and access. I’ve lost all of those things. But there is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed.”

“At a certain level of exposure, ‘Free Palestine,’ becomes too much of a risk,” Macklemore added later. “That’s what this has become for me and millions of others around the world. A duty. Not something deserving of praise or gratitude. Not brave. Human.”

According to Macklemore, Sheeran is choosing the “less costly” path of making people happy with music, instead of what he sees as a basic, human duty to speak out against Israel. But he would never tear down Sheeran’s character.

Macklemore acted pleased with himself, as if he had exploited Sheeran’s fame as far as it would take him, and now he had no further use for it. “I didn’t need 10 shows from Ed. I needed 2,” he wrote. “Two chances to stand in front of 90,000 people and say the words that somehow became too dangerous to say. Free Palestine. But if those words cost me the stage, while turning the conversation back to Palestine, then it was the most successful tour I’ve ever been on.”

Macklemore’s defiant ingratitude — not to mention blatant anti-Semitism — is consistent with his long track record of provocation. In 2012, three years before Obergefell, he released the song “Same Love” in support of same-sex marriage. In 2024, he released “Hind’s Hall” to celebrate the pro-Hamas campus occupation at Columbia University. He also led “F*** America” chants at Seattle’s “Palestine Will Live Forever” festival.

Meanwhile, Sheeran was still in the business of selling live music, not politics, to stadium-sized crowds, which meant he was trying to control the fallout from these antics. “After Macklemore’s performances at my New Jersey shows, venues on my upcoming tour dates communicated that they would pull the shows if he was still supporting,” Sheeran wrote.

“I spoke with the venues at length all week to try and build a bridge. … I was also involved in direct talks with promoters along with activists on both sides to try and find a mutual resolution for all, but the venue’s and promoter’s decision was final.”

Led by Robert Kraft, a pro-Israel Jew who owns Gillette Stadium (home to the New England Patriots), where Sheeran was scheduled to perform, several venues said they would “not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup,” according to a representative for Messina Touring Group, the promotional company that organised the tour. The company said Macklemore had been dropped “after discussions with stakeholders.” Kraft confirmed this description of events.

“Macklemore coming off tour was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine,” noted Sheeran, because “Macklemore’s contract for the tour was with the promoter, not me.”

However, Sheeran accepted the decision because he understands the first rule of show business. “I would never let down the fans who had made plans, nor would I abandon the touring crew and the other support acts and musicians who rely on me for work and to make a living.” Or, as Cosmo Brown said in Singin’ in the Rain, “Come rain, come shine, come snow, come sleet, the show must go on.”

Unfortunately for Sheeran, he soon discovered that his loyalty to his other supporting acts ran deeper than their loyalty to him.

Supporting Acts Walk Away

Another show opener, Irish singer-songwriter Aaron Rowe, echoed Macklemore’s “Free Palestine” theme in a Tuesday departure message. “As Irish people, we know all too well about genocide, forced famine and violent occupation,” he declared. “I cannot stand by and allow billionaires to use their position of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up against Israeli genocide. … I would lose all respect for myself to carry on as normal.”

Rowe’s response combines Marxism and anti-Semitism with a deftness betraying real lyrical talent. In three sentences, he said that billionaires are bad, Jewish people have no right to their ancestral homeland, and that Israel is committing genocide — without expressly saying any of those things. If only he stayed on the Sheeran tour, more Sheeran fans might have come to appreciate him!

The other opener, Danish artist Lukas Graham, also withdrew in a message combining Marxist ideas with anti-Israel ones. “I grew up in Christiania, a small community in Denmark where speaking your mind was part of everyday life. Having more money didn’t make your opinion worth more than anyone else’s. Money doesn’t give you the right to own the conversation. Nobody’s bank balance should decide who gets to speak or which suffering we’re allowed to acknowledge,” Graham wrote. “I can’t put these words out into the world and carry on with this tour as things stand.” The message signed off with three watermelon emojis (adopted as a pro-Palestine symbol because of its red and green flag).

Even Sheeran’s band, Beoga, pulled out, announcing, “We have made the decision to depart as Ed Sheeran’s band on the remaining US loop tour, following the silencing of Macklemore by Zionist lobbies.”

Even beyond the tour, Sheeran faced ruptures. Finneas, Billie Eilish’s brother, will no longer open for Sheeran’s South America tour. “Artists must not be silenced when they stand up for the oppressed,” he declared. “I have decided to withdraw from my upcoming tour dates with Ed Sheeran. I stand with Palestine and its people.”

The irony is that each of these smaller musicians needed Sheeran’s tour more than Sheeran needed them. He can likely find other musicians to perform with him, but it is his name that sells out stadiums. Yet they acted as if Sheeran was about to face a career-ending cancellation as if it were still 2021, and they didn’t want to be standing too close when lightning struck.

Sheeran Chooses Music Over Politics

Sheeran did sound mildly defensive in a long explainer. “I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care.”

But, thus far, Sheeran has not faced any widespread cancellation; these artists merely cancelled themselves. And the odds are that the people who like to hear Sheeran lilt along in “Thinking Out Loud” are not the sort of people to get angry that he has not turned into a politically edgy culture warrior.

In fact, those likely to turn off fans are those who insist on turning musical performances into political statements. “If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next?” Macklemore daydreamed. “The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that’s why this time it became so important to silence me.”

This two-dimensional view treats the world like a newspaper clipping from 1968. There’s more to life than politics — business, music, even joy. The readiest reason why NFL owners would kick a flagrantly anti-Semitic show out of their stadiums is money.

Whether protecting their brand or filling seats was the top concern, business owners understand that the market for angry protest music is much smaller than that for sentimental love songs. Entirely apart from Macklemore’s politics, NFL owners who contracted to host an Ed Sheeran concert want to make sure that they give ticket-buyers an Ed Sheeran concert.

Even Macklemore’s ability to throw his half-baked ideas onto social media illustrates that he is not quite as “silenced” as he pretends. In fact, at least one venue in America has already invited him for a performance. Last Monday, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud tweeted at Macklemore, “[I]f they don’t want you performing in their stadiums, you’re always welcome in Dearborn. Come put on a show here. We’ll make it a free concert, sponsored by the City, and help make it one of the best around. We stand with you and for a free Palestine.”

Birds of a feather! It may not sell out a football stadium, but Hammoud may have just pointed Macklemore to his most receptive audience yet.

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Republished with thanks to The Washington Stand. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.