In early September, Macklemore, serving as one of the openers for Ed Sheeran’s ‘Loop Tour,’ called for a “Free Palestine” during his set at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Following the onstage speech and much controversy, Macklemore shared a post on socials claiming that the owner of the New England Patriots (and by extension, the owner of Gillette Stadium), Robert Kraft, reportedly rallied other venue owners to pressure Sheeran to drop him off the tour lineup.
The rapper explained that Sheeran eventually followed through with Kraft’s request before posting a statement of his own to social media addressing the situation. He referenced his desire to remain neutral and not bring politics to the stage much to the dismay of his fans.
Fans were not the only individuals upset with Sheeran’s choice to drop the rapper from the tour, however. The singer’s own backing band Beoga along with the remaining openers Finneas, Aaron Rowe and Lukas Graham all dropped off the Loop Tour in solidarity with Macklemore, each posting their own statements to their pages regarding the reason for their exit.
Roger Waters of Pink Floyd has since shared a video message addressing Sheeran on Instagram, expressing his disappointment with the singer’s choice to remove Macklemore from the tour. “This is a little message for Ed Sheeran. There are two kinds of people in this world. There’s people who do the right thing, the rapper Macklemore would be one of those people. And there’s people… many of them, sadly, little pricks like you who do the wrong thing.”
Massive Attack also took to social media to address Sheeran’s decision to boot Macklemore from the tour, writing, in part, “Entertainment can never be bigger than resisting the apartheid & genocide of fellow human beings. ‘Neutrality’ in the face of the slaughter of more than 20,000 children can never be neutrality. No artist should tolerate the censorship of another artist, however many millions of dollars are in play.”
The ‘Loop Tour’ is currently still scheduled to take place, picking up again on September 19 with a show in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at Lincoln Financial Field. No word yet on any potential replacement openers or backing band.
Photo credit: April Siese
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