Complying With Censorship is Complicity, Ed Sheeran

On Sept. 5, rapper Macklemore passionately addressed an audience at MetLife stadium with a speech condemning Israel’s genocide against Palestinians. 

Macklemore was on tour as a supporting act for his longtime friend, pop icon Ed Sheeran. On stage, the rapper stated one reason he wanted to come on Sheeran’s Loop Tour was the opportunity it provided to advocate for a free Palestine, condemning Israel’s actions in his speech. 

After this advocacy, stadium owner Robert Kraft banned Macklemore from Sept. 25 and 26 tour dates at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. In a Sept. 14 statement from Kraft, he referred to Macklemore’s statements against Israel as hate speech while claiming the Grammy award-winning artist has a broader history of antisemitism. 

“Standing with the Palestinian people and standing against Hamas, antisemitism and hate should not be mutually exclusive,” Kraft wrote.

The state of Israel is conducting a genocide in Gaza, according to the United Nations. 

The actions taken by Israel include failure to investigate genocidal acts, failure to comply with the orders of the International Court of Justice, mass killing of Palestinians, blocking humanitarian aid and lethally targeting children.

The criticism of Macklemore as antisemitic is baseless. In his Sep. 5 speech, he made it clear his advocacy isn’t bigoted. As part of his speech, he clarified his criticism of Israel, apartheid and genocide is in no way a criticism of the Jewish people. 

On Sep. 15, Sheeran released an Instagram clarifying statement that drew widespread backlash. 

In the statement, Sheeran evaded accountability by claiming it wasn’t his decision to remove Macklemore. According to Macklemore, it was Sheeran’s decision. In a statement posted to his Instagram, he argued Sheeran could’ve leveraged his power as a world-famous artist. 

Sheeran referred to the genocide in Gaza as a conflict between Israel and Palestine, obfuscating the fact that this is a case of oppression, not a mutual conflict.

He insisted he wasn’t complicit; he has his personal views, and he subtly dismissed Macklemore’s advocacy. 

Though he initially claimed his silent apoliticism and Macklemore’s speech are both equally valid approaches to achieving peace, he went on to assert that focusing on shouting the loudest changes nothing.

Sheeran espouses a negligent view in which unity can be achieved by apoliticism and merely enjoying the music together at his all-inclusive concerts.

Shortly after his post, other supporting acts dropped from the tour in response. This group of artists includes Finneas, Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe and Beoga.

Despite his pleas, the cohort of supporting artists denounced his behavior as complicit.

Ed Sheeran is now on a solo tour.

Condemnation of the state of Israel’s actions can be considered an act of unity. Sheeran’s view that people can spread peace by ignoring and censoring advocacy isn’t true unity at all — it’s hiding in a privileged bubble that only spreads the solidarity of singing Ed Sheeran songs about castles on hills. 

However, matters changed when Sheeran opened a concert Sept. 20 with a speech that contradicted much of his instagram post. 

Although the monologue is an improvement, his message wasn’t truly beautiful and sweet.

In this address, Sheeran apologized without specificity while saying that venue owners shouldn’t pre-approve content from performers. 

“I am deeply worried about the idea that venues pre-approve content from performers,” Sheeran said. “It should never happen in the free world.” 

He apologized by saying he’s making mistakes and stating he’s sorry.

Sheeran rightfully condemned the actions of Israel as catastrophic and unjustifiable. In a later, second statement from Kraft, he claimed that Sheeran donated $2 million to regional aid in response to the controversy.

This is great if Sheeran truly does donate aid to Palestinians, but he was right to say he’s making mistakes. Note the present tense.

A key flaw of Sheeran’s pseudo-apology is that he continued to attempt neutrality in a place where there’s none. Sheeran is right to condemn the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, but he’s not right to call the Israel-Palestine conflict “the most complex political issue on the planet.” 

Sheeran playing up the complexity of a clear case of genocide is a form of playing both sides. Even if complexity was meant to mean this case of oppression has broad geopolitical ramifications, that hasn’t stopped his advocacy before in the case of the Russia-Ukraine War.

Sheeran’s apology is downright misleading. He claims he “never wanted to be an activist musician.” Be it in partisan politics or international conflicts, his claims of apoliticism contradict his open support for the Labor Party or Ukraine, a topic that elicits much less political blowback than criticizing Israel. 

In 2022, Sheeran performed at the Concert for Ukraine fundraiser. Not only did he perform, but he didn’t mince words in his support for Ukraine. When Ukrainian band Antytila reached out to him, he responded by saying he loves and supports them. 

In a later Instagram post with this band of Ukrainian frontline soldiers, whom he collaborated with, Sheeran did his signature mild smile while holding a flag in support of Ukraine’s fundraising initiative UNITED24. 

Despite Kraft, a multi-billionaire, declining to match donations of both Macklemore and Sheeran when asked, despite his hankering for censorship by rallying other venue owners to remove Macklemore, despite his 2019 prostitution solicitation case, Sheeran planned to perform at Kraft’s Gillette Stadium on Sept. 25. and 26.

Ultimately, Sheeran didn’t go through with the concerts, but it wasn’t out of his own virtue. The dates  were cancelled due to severe weather. Sheeran still plans to perform at other venues on the tour stop that Macklemore was allegedly banned from. 

Yes, Sheeran does have an obligation to his fans, but he has an obligation to speak up too.

Yes, his second statement was broadly pro-Palestine, but his advocacy shouldn’t shy away from calling for a free Palestine.

Yes, Ed Sheeran’s music can be uniting, but true unity can’t be achieved by kowtowing to stadium owners that censor advocacy against genocide.