As the late, great archbishop Desmond Tutu put it, ‘If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.’ When the pushback against Macklemore came, Ed Sheeran chose his side. Macklemore’s crime: using the platform of a stadium tour to express solidarity with victims of genocide.
It’s worth noting that the U.S. rapper has been outspoken in his support for the Palestinians since the start of the genocide. So the fact that he was booked in the first place suggests that Sheeran privately agrees with much of what he says on this issue. Sheeran’s buckling under pressure is hugely disappointing. That pressure did not come from fans. Indeed Macklemore’s demand ‘Free Palestine’ was met with huge cheers from the vast stadium audience on the first shows of the tour. He was, it appeared, ‘preaching to the choir’. People know what happened in Gaza and public opinion is on his side. Complaints came from pressure groups who know they have lost the argument and now resort to trying to create a climate of fear about speaking out. A decisive moment, we are told, was a call from the billionaire owner of Gillette Stadium Robert Kraft demanding Macklemore be dropped.
We saw a similar situation last year with the bungled attempt to silence the Irish hip-hop group Kneecap. Festival goers were keen to see them perform at Glastonbury Festival, but around thirty of the UK music industry’s most powerful executives thought otherwise. They signed a secret letter written by David Levy of William Morris Endeavour (WME) agency calling for the owners of the festival to remove Kneecap from the bill. The letter was leaked and turned into an epic own-goal. On hearing about it, celebrities rallied to express solidarity with Kneecap and were joined by artists on David Levy’s own roster, some of whom refused to be represented by him any longer. Kneecap, meanwhile, played a triumphant banger of a set to a huge sunbaked Glastonbury crowd and went on to sell out the biggest headline shows of their career to date.
Thanks to Sheeran’s cowardice, the cancelation of Macklemore may have proved more successful, were it not for the principled actions of the other support acts on the tour and Sheeran’s own backing band. In a remarkable act of solidarity, all have now announced that they are pulling out, leaving the tour in turmoil. Macklemore has gained millions of fans around the world while Sheeran’s popularity plummets. Most importantly, thanks to the solidarity of his colleagues, Macklemore’s declaration of ‘Free Palestine’ now reverberate across the world’s media. His insistence that solidarity will not be silenced has prevailed.
Dave Randall is a musician and writer. An updated second edition of his book Sound System: The Political Power of Music is out now from Pluto Press.