WEd Sheeran’s Recent Macklemore Backlash Reminds Us That Everything is Political

On September 14, 2026, the four-time Grammy-winning singer Ed Sheeran faced severe backlash after recently cutting his opening act Macklemore from the Loop Tour. This controversial decision to drop the ‘Thrift Shop’ rapper was a result of two onstage ‘Free Palestine’ speeches (Sept. 4-5) during the tour’s performances at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. A majority of the backlash, however, is a result of Sheeran’s speech in Philadelphia (Sept. 19) before his set, where the singer frustrated the public with his continuously passive stance and general hypocrisy.

The Pressure

Ed Sheeran has stated on Instagram that the decision to drop Macklemore was from his promoter, Messina Touring Group, and not Sheeran himself. This pressure to kick the American rapper was added to by the Israeli-American Council, who petitioned and spoke online for Macklemore’s removal from the tour, as well as by Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft, who told Sheeran that his opener’s political commentary was hate speech and would lead to the cancelling of the Loop Tour’s performances at their Massachusetts venue. According to Macklemore, Sheeran stated that Kraft also persuaded other venue owners to blacklist Macklemore from further performances at their locations.

The Statements

On the day he was dropped (Sept. 14), Macklemore sent out a lengthy post on Instagram mentioning the two artist’s ‘fundamental disagreement’ about neutrality and having an apolitical platform. In the statement, the rapper acknowledges how the resulting criticism from his speeches placed Sheeran in a very awkward and challenging position, but goes on to state that if the words ‘Free Palestine’ were more hurtful to people than the thousands of Palestinian children dying, then “there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood,” to which Macklemore claims Sheeran responded, “I don’t take sides.” 

In a responding Instagram post the next day, Sheeran opens with the lines, “I am appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The suffering and pain caused on both sides is a human tragedy. There are too many wars across the world causing immeasurable pain, none of which should be tolerated.” The singer goes on to write that his promoters decided to cut Macklemore from the tour as a result of “how Macklemore conveyed part of his message… rather than on everything that was said.” Sheeran especially highlights the fact that he has his own views on the matter, but does not speak on them publicly for the sake of maintaining the peace and unity of his fandom. The comments had been turned off on that post.

On September 19, Ed Sheeran made a statement in Philadelphia before the opening of his set talking about the continuation of his tour and his perspective on the events of the past week. In the speech, Sheeran speaks about how he did not want to be an “activist musician,” but recent events have put him in the middle of a debate about “freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet.” He goes on to talk about his concern that venues are ‘pre-approving’ the content of performers and how it “should never happen in the free world.” Near the end of the singer’s speech, Sheeran states, “I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore. What happened in Israel and at the Nova Music Festival on October 7th was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate.” This speech was also posted to Ed Sheeran’s Instagram account with the comments turned off.

The Backlash

Many point out that in the initial Instagram statement, Sheeran fails to understand the disproportionality of the deaths between Palestine and Israel (over 75,000 Palestinians and over 2,000 Israelis) and crucially misdefined the Israel-Palestine conflict as a war instead of a genocide, which is a term supported and repeated by hundreds of humanitarian and human rights organizations because Israel’s actions have met 4 out the 5 constituting acts of a genocide. Many people especially dislike his decision to not speak publicly and ‘take sides’ because, as stated by Elie Wiesel, “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

Further backlash was caused from Sheeran’s Philadelphia speech. People point out that even though Ed Sheeran claims he did not want to be an activist, he was not as shy when he exhibited clear and strong advocacy for Ukraine in the Russia-Ukraine invasion, and that to describe the Gaza genocide as ‘complex’ would be an overstatement. Many influencers and comedians have also mocked Sheeran for his hypocrisy and ‘spinelessness,’ as he was visibly reading off of a possibly pre-approved teleprompter during his entire speech despite also talking against venues pre-approving content. And although the singer seems to have finally come out with an opinion about the genocide by the end of speech, much of the public is still concerned about Sheeran’s passive, ‘both sides’ language that failed to acknowledge the true horrors of the event along the Gaza Strip.

The Result

After Sheeran’s Instagram statement (Sept. 15), all of his remaining opening acts decided to drop themselves from the Loop Tour, including Lukas Graham, Finneas O’Connell, Aaron Rowe, and even his backing band Beoga. The day after that, Macklemore decided he will donate a million dollars to Palestinian relief efforts. Then on September 24th, the rapper announced that he would have a Free Palestine Tour that toured in Paris, London, and Dublin, which has now been fully sold out on October 1st. 

But all of this just comes back to remind us that everything, from the words we say to the art we create to the actions we make, is inevitably political because even the minutest of things show who we are and the values we hold dear. We cannot live apolitically, not because we shouldn’t, but because we can’t. Not taking a side, staying silent, tuning it out is in itself a political action that tells people that you are content with what is happening, which is especially horrific in the face of horrific events. So if this much is true, are you living true to your politics?