Macklemore Dropped From Ed Sheeran Tour After Onstage ‘Free Palestine’ Statements
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6 replies
anti-GENOCIDE is considered controversial nowadays...
I wouldn't say he's a dick, but he's a coward.
Apparently no one read the article:
The option was show with no Macklemore or no show at all...
And that was the decision of the single company that owns almost every major venue in America
Most stadiums and arenas are independently owned AFAIK. According to Mackelmore, Robert Kraft who owns Gillette Stadium, got him kicked of the tour.
Kraft latter confirmed this to be true.
Yeah, I saw someone else found a better link with an explanation from Macklemore. Every stop who threatened to cancel was an NFL stadium, it wasnt just Kraft and NE.
Highlights an even bigger issue where city/state residents foot the bill for these venues but then the billionaire keeps final control over it.
It's insane cities don't own their own stadiums. We pay for it anyways.
Fuck that Ed refused to take a stand and Kraft mever banned Kanye after releasing heil hitler.
Sheeran could speak outjust like pink did but he chooses to let a friend and colleague be put on blast publicly. Ed has the money to not be silent.
BUT THINK OF THE FANS!!!
Should have called their bluff and asked to cancel the whole show.
What?
It was "individual venues" but it's a safe assumption it's Live Nation, because they own most large venues.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Nation_Entertainment
And again, it's not Ed decision anyways:
Very few artists (certainly not this one) can pay up front for a US stadium tour.
They have financial backers who then have final say, even if they initially let artists make decisions.
You're right to be mad, but it's completely unproductive when you're not mad at the right people.
At least be mad at the people who actually the problem and Ed Sheeran. Instead of mad at Ed Sheeran instead of the right people.
Ed could have also said "Free Palestine"
The show does not have to go on for the benefit of shitheads
According to Macklemore, it was Robert Kraft personally.
Confirmed. This is the guy that was soliciting prostitutes and then used his money to get the charges dropped...
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/macklemore-dropped-ed-sheeran-tour-robert-kraft-statement-1235626352/
Ticketmaster/live nation continue to be one of the worst companies in America
Gift link from Defector about what caused this: https://defector.com/robert-kraft-now-decides-who-tours-with-ed-sheeran?giftLink=0f849c8c3a8ed08c6a2512a5d9c2aadc
Well Ed fucking sucks. This is more than just passively looking away. Silencing criticism of a genocide makes you actively complicit.
History will remember people like this.
Both sides coward
And Macklemore is cool. He might be cringy, but he's genuine and I like him. Saw him live once and it was one of the best shows I ever saw.
I didn't like him because his line on his hit song about wearing fur, which I am against. But now, I am 100% behind this muthafucka.
It's not Ed, it's the industry...
Like Macklemore said himself:
Macklemore is truly independent, he can say whatever the fuck he wants.
Ed has "his own label" but it's owned by Warner, so if they tell him to do something, he has to do it.
There's only a handful of major labels, but they "give" popular artists sub-labels to cultivate an illusion of diversity.
Epitaph is one of "biggest small labels" and they even pull the same shit, although I'm not gonna complain Tim Armstrong gets more autonomy....
Macklemore continued: “His typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before. He told me that the words ‘Free Palestine’ and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with. I told him that if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood. But he couldn’t get past his public facing, ‘I don’t take sides.’”
That's a distinction without a difference. Of course the label were a factor here, likely the deciding one. But that just makes the label culpable without absolving Ed from it. They all fucking suck, but Ed is still the one doing shows. He could/should have made Macklemore a condition of contuining to perform.
I get what you are saying, this choice wasn't made by Ed alone. But at the end of the day, all I see is a genocide being covered up. It doesn't matter if we blame the artist or the label more, all of them are complicit in silencing criticism. They should all be addressed, called out and remembered for their active inaction.
The choice was:
Go along with Macklemore getting removed.
Get removed along with Macklemore and if lucky get dropped.
What is more likely is the label keeps you on the current contract, but intentionally savatoges you to make an example out of. Even if they let him out of his contract, he's a big name but going independent would be a massive pay cut.
Like, without a label behind him, he's not headlining anything. His best bet is to get picked up as an opener like Macklemore, and obviously he could get dropped just as easily.
Absolutely nothing would change.
What needs to change is breaking up giant corporations so a handful of CEOs don't have this much power. That would actually solve shit.
You don't get what I'm saying, because I'm saying Ed had no say on if Macklemore would stay. He could just have thrown his own career away too out of solidarity when it wouldn't produce meaningful change.
Which is a very different choice.
Oh come off it. The man has a litany of awards. The idea that his career would end today because he showed solidarity with Gaza is laughable. You aren't making a serious argument here.
Always a million reasons to do the easy thing, but I'm glad some artists use their platform to do the right thing. Ed sure as shit isn't one of them.
I think the main difference is you still think music industry awards mean anything when they're given by the literal people who are actually causing the problem you're mad about
And you also think Ed Sheenan is talented, and isn't just an aging popstar the same music industry made a thing, mostly thru their own made awards.
This is way more dystopian than you realize, you're just not understanding any of it because you're upset
Calm down and just think for a second man, none of this is overly complicated.
Like, in 2026 it's just shocking to find anyone who thinks an artist signed to a major label has any say about anything. Which was the entire point of my first comment.
Who?
Kneecap does it because they're the biggest name on a small London Indie label who blew up internationally
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavenly_Recordings
And they can't play big festivals/shows anymore either.
So who are this mythical big names signed to major labels who can "do the right thing". Because I'm betting bringing Macklemore along to sing Hinds Hall in front of giant crowds is less than they did, especially knowing this would eventually happen.
Edit:
And to clarify, if Macklemore was on the lineup venues weren't going to let the shows happen...
I'm not saying there isn't something to be mad at here, I'm saying being mad at the wrong people just lets the actual problem go unaddressed.
It's starts to get suspicious you're so gungho to let the actual people censoring media in defense of Israel.off the hook
This is the kind of propaganda Israel excels at, and whether you know it or not you're doing their work for them
If the tour gets canceled, Ed still has a public voice that people actually listen to. He could try to turn his fans on the owners of the venues, and what are they going to say? No one cares what some glorified landlord thinks or feels.
This was cowardly of him, and he'll have to live with the fact that he could have been a man and wasn't.
So you think he got Macklemore to open...
And was shocked when Macklemore said this?
You don't think that he knew Macklemore would say what he's been saying for years, and that giving him this platform to say it wasn't valuable.
You know if Macklemore never got this gig, there wouldn't be an article right?
What's going on here, why are so many people not capable.ofnunderstanding this?
Does Ed Sheeran need money? I mean I am sure he would still have plenty of fans to make a huge living at smaller venues and selling on Bandcamp or his own website direct. But I doubt he needs money that bad.
Ed Sheeran is worth $400m.
"It's OK if you do it for money"
No...
It's just acting like he has any control just shows that you don't understand it.
If you think he can just say "Macklemore stays" and that's it, Ed looks like a huge dick.
Which is why it's worth clarifying he his only other option is to throw his own career away after almost certainly being the ones who got Macklemore on stage and able to say it in front of a huge crowd in the first place.
If everyone who supported Palestine quit their jobs in the entertainment industry in protest, it would just be handing away their microphones, figuratively and literally.
What's so hard about understanding this?
Foxy got enough money to just say fuck it tho 🤷🏻 and that would help
I guess Ed Sheeran was... Warned.
And Christ, what's the point or fame and power if you're not allowed to call a fucking genocide a genocide?
What did they think he was going to do? Palestine has been Macklemore's whole thing for a few years, now. When they booked him in the first place, did they think he'd just play Thrift Shop 5 times a night or something?
I think they probably risked it because someone on Ed's team (or Ed himself) likes him and they were hoping there would not be as much pushback or that it would not lead to the label or whoever their bosses are to be assholes like this. Seems like they were just trying to push the envelope and weren't successful unfortunately.
Yesterday I had no opinion on either. Today I have a higher opinion of Macklemore than Ed Sheeran.
I got burned out by the thrift shop song but check out his song “Same Love.” Dude has been a real one since the start, Palestine is just another cause he’s on the right side of.
“For those who like the same sex had the characteristics. The right wing conservatives think it’s a decision, that can be fixed with some treatment and religion.”
Apparently it was an ultimatum and there was a contract
Had he chosen not to go on, the vocal people would say he was afraid to go on after Macklemore said Palestine.