To feel sorry for Ed Sheeran.....

[mids2019]

So Ed Sheeran's tour is in tatters simply because he believes music for entertainment and personally he likes to keep politics out of it (as many many stars do).

Simply because his support wanted to highlight the oppressed people of Iran and the use of capital punishment to stifle dissent support wanted to bring up Gaza without any reference to the start of the war due to a massacre on October 7th and Ed didn't want that he is suddenly the bad guy? Perhaps Ed succumbed to sing of thinking of Jews in the audience and the connotations of 'Free Paelstine' he is now on the naughty step of virtue signallers.

So all those Sheeran fans could lose out seeing someone they have waited months to see because some humpty has to jump on the Gaza bandwagon with a few trite soundbites as part of his act (because hey the ME isn't complicated) to look a bit radical or whatever. Bloody disgrace.

You don’t appear to have much of an issue with the stadium owners who implemented sanctions on musicians for stating their opinion. Isn’t that bullying?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-27483970

this is an article from the time.

nowhere does it even hint at a salute being given.

his other arm in bent up towards his head - so in the a sense of a salute being mentioned in an article about the actual event, it would seem that he was dancing.

His apology was accepted at the time by the anti defamation League. I have no idea of the context of why he was wearing a costume so it's hard to know what was going on.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/may/20/macklemore-adl-antisemitism-row-costume?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Agree with you. Works for Macklemore. Everyone’s heard of him now. But, will he get hired again?

He didn't fire anyone. The tour operator did. He had no say at all.

I think I can find more deserving folk to feel sorry for.

Fair enough to keep politics out of entertainment and maybe Ed Sheeran should have clarified that position with his support acts before they launched.

However if someone threatens to cancel your venue because of your (or your support act’s) political views then the concept of “I may not agree with Macklemore’s views but I will defend to the death his right to express them” should apply I feel. I think he should have taken a stand at that point.

Sympathy for multi millionaire ES who is the musical equivalent of magnolia paint, who chose to stay insufferably vanilla (once again) on a very important point, just to rake in a few extra mil to satisfy his US audience?

Pass me the tiny violin

Oh it’s you again OP. Do you still not understand the difference between wanting a free Palestine and supporting Hamas. You are very muddled.

You could just say you believe in Israeli propaganda and call it a day. Unfortunately I don't have sympathy for a millionaire that has benefitted from being silent in the face of mass genocide and children/women being murdered just to retain his wealth, he is a coward.

This isn't a Jewish issue and the fact that you think otherwise means you have no idea what this genocide is really about

Nothing Macklemore said was actually “political”, controversial, or threatening.

What do you think he has done to never be hired again? Literally nothing happened at the concerts. He has been an advocate for years. Ed knew this when he hired him. The promoters,everybody knew what he was about. It wasn't until he had a stadium cheering for a free Palestinine, Congo and Lebanon that there was suddenly an issue with him.

It was the same with Kneecap. They had the audience at Coachella eating out of their hands and suddenly they were a problem.

The only thing he did 'wrong' at these concerts was reach too big of an audience. Unfortunately for Kraft instead of hiding his message by deplatforming him he has just amplified it.

He has also gained about 1 million followers in 24 hours and 7 and a half million people liked his statement.

Anyone who wanted to attend his concert before will know his beliefs and want to attend his concerts again .

Don’t feel sorry for Ed at all. He should’ve stood up for his friend. They were obviously close as Ed sang at Macklemores wedding. He could’ve taken a stand on the right to free speech without getting into the politics of things. What Macklemore said was actually measured and inclusive. Fair play to the other artists stepping down.

music and political expression have always gone hand in hand- John Lennon, Bono, morrissey, bob Marley. Even Pink in her song about the president during the Iraq war. But when others come out with something she doesn’t agree with she tries to take the moral high ground.

You either stand for something, or you stand for nothing.
I believe in free speech. People are free to buy tickets to Ed's concerts, or not, just as the musicians who support Ed are free to play alongside him, or choose not to be involved.
Kraft and other Trump billionaire besties seem to think their money can bend the media to their will through their blatant censorship. If Bob doesn’t want his stadiums used for what he considers hate speech, that is his right - he can choose not to host any artist. But he doesn’t get to decide what the public is allowed to hear, nor should his wealth give him the power to silence opinions he disagrees with.

Free speech means tolerating views you find offensive, not using your wealth and influence to shut them down. Do we want free speech or not? If we do, we must accept that it must work both ways.

If I go to a concert I want to hear music, not the opinions of the musicians.
i think it's rude for support acts to make someone else's concert about their political views.

If you express sympathy and solidarity with innocent people who are being systematically killed, including literal babies, you are not political. You are a human being.

No one was expecting Ed Sheeran to say anything about Palestine, just back his support acts. He was a coward, and he's suffered the consequences. The venue had hosted much more controversial figures - it's simply because it was a call to free Palestine that it was an issue.

That OP is not even coherent. It seems to have been written by someone frothing at the mouth with rage.

One phrase that stood out to me is 'the Gaza bandwagon'.

It amazes me that we seem to be living in a climate where having a problem with the mass killing and starving of innocent civilians including children, forced herding of civilians into spaces where weapons of war are unleashed upon them and deliberate blocking of medical aid to those civilians can be dismissed as being on a band wagon. When civilians are targeted, starved and trapped as an act of war, there is something depraved about criticising individuals who speak out about it.

He’s done nothing wrong. I’m not a fan but his fans have paid, presumably, a lot of money to see him, not his warm up acts! I’m sure there are plenty of artists who’d be happy to take their place.
Macklemore is antisemitic and shouldn’t be given a platform.

No sympathy. Due research before deciding on support acts, he would have then chosen someone else.

“..the start of the war due to October 7th”

Seriously, if that is where your knowledge of the conflict begins, you have zero understanding of it, at all. And having zero understanding of it, your perception of this conflict will be necessarily incorrect/uneducated. Ie your opinion doesn’t matter, because you don’t have the background. (Really, no offence).

Please do read up on it as extensively as you can. Watch a documentary, see what the charities on the ground are ALL saying.

I have been protesting for Palestine since 2002 - back then the treatment was beyond the realms of human cruelty (a friend of a uni friend that year was bulldozed to death for trying to protect a Palestinian home from being taken), since 1948 the treatment of those indigenous people has been abhorrent and obviously since 2023 it’s been outright genocide.

Don’t feel sorry for Ed, he’ll be fine.

Think how you’d feel if people rolled up and took your house with violence and oppression.

We have to stand for humanity,

Of course it is! The difference between support for Ukraine and support for Palestine is that the former is in line with the empire and the latter very much against.

Agree. This is a very fair advice that I hope the op can take without offence. Lots more reading into the history between Israel and Palestine is needed if OP truly believes this started on October 7th