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
Agreed. I get so mad when people get all shitty about immigrants and religions and foreign countries and it’s like dude, they are people, like you and me, desperately trying to survive in a very different but equally shitty system to the one we are trying desperately to survive in. You can’t cherry pick honor killings and morality police incidents as the only evil in the world while you ignore school shootings and mass medicare denials. We’re all fighting the same fights against inequality and injustice even if we’re all stuck in different lanes. We’re all fucking people. We all want the same fucking things, we want a home, we want safety and security for our families, and we want some opportunity to make our future better. We can certainly argue about how exactly to do that, but demonizing other people is where evil starts.
Removed by mod
Unity is built through coalition, not homogeneity.
Also, it’s spelled “dilute”.
Ok
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
Did
Lol
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.
Israeli lobby has really done a number on folks’ perception of violence.
An who can blame them with antisemitic comments like this all over the place… /s
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?
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.
good, fuck him
and fuck anyone else who continues to live life normally while this atrocity unfolds.
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.
In the world full of Ed Sheerans, be James Blunt. 😬
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.
Solidarity with Palestine, and also with Macklemore.
What are things I’d never thought I’d read in 2016, Alex?
2016? You just wake up? You have one hell of a decade to catch up on.
Tbf, they are things I’d never thought I’d read in 2016, even in 2036.
If only Sheeran also stood by him.
Fucking great news!!
Now Sheeran will either have to act in solidarity with them, or find out.
if the concert tour is cancelled before he opens his mouth, I think he’s going to have to do make some serious statements to try and win many fans back.
Yeah, I was thinking the same. Once he starts losing money & fans, how’s he (or his PR team) going to spin his apology?
My money is on: “I made a mistake, I’m listening, I’m learning, I’m donating” schtick. IMO There’s a point after which you can’t claim you just didn’t know & ask for an apology. You’ve shown you hand & there’s no going back.
“NOM!” - the leopards, in regards to faces
They could have stayed on the tour, made the same statements, and forced the promoter to remove them like they did Macklemore.
I’m not sure that would have been better. Putting the whole tour at risk like this will prompt massive backlash from people that paid to see a show. Often tickets protect promoters from cancellations but in this case it may be unclear since it is the fault of the pressure from the top.
In either case, both this and that sure beat just playing the shows and letting Macklemore stand alone.
Ironically it looks like Ed Sheeran will be the one standing alone at this rate
well his band quit now so
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
