Macklemore has been dropped from Ed Sheeran’s tour
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Why was Macklemore removed from Ed Sheeran’s US tour?
The Claire Byrne Show on News Talk. With Aviva Insurance.
Now, as we've been hearing, Macklemore has been dropped by Ed Sheeran from his US concert tour after the American rapper made calls to free Palestine while on stage. In a post on Instagram, Mcklemore revealed that he and Ed Sheehan, who are longtime friends, have had some difficult conversations this past week as the English musician faced pressure from US stadium owners to drop McLemore. Let's find out more. about this now. I'm joined by founder of Music Site and uh podcast Niler9, Nile Byrne. Hello Nile. Hey Claire, how are you? I'm very well. Well, we go back to where all this started. Like we just played a clip there of McElmore on stage. It was it was that type of of statement on stage that led to where we are today, right?
Yeah, so he had two concerts at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on September fourth and September fifth. The first night he said, I wanted to do this tour in the first place 'cause I want to stand up at the stadium and say the two words are near and dear to my heart. Free Palestine, he's been saying that for a number of years now, three or four years at least, you know. I mean he has been very he had a song called Heinz Hall, which is standing up for people who are under uh who are dealing with ice as well. He often talks about this. And he has done this at every concert he's done in the last three or four years. So I guess my question is, what did Ed Sheeran think was going to happen here? Because they are friends, sure.
But what happened is that Ed Shear must know that um Magamore does this at his gigs.
What did Macklemore say about his ‘Free Palestine’ statements on Instagram?
And so he did this at these two gigs and then became the backlash.
Yeah, but the statement that McElmour issued last night that I referred to there on on Instagram gave us an awful lot of detail. I mean, often with these things you don't get the It's very revealing. It is very revealing. Tell us about it.
This is why this story is so interesting because usually all this stuff happens behind the scenes. You hear about an artist being dropped from a a lineup, all this kind of stuff. But McAmore has chosen and actually um other people including Robert Kraft, the guy who pressured him, who owns the Gillette Stadium, is who said, I'm not I don't want this guy playing my stadium, has also shared a statement about it. But I think Macamore is really interesting because It we're talking about Ed Sheeran here. Ed Sheeran is one of the biggest artists on the planet. And he is, he says, Ed Sheeran himself says he wants to remain apolitic apolitical. Even though in the past Ed Sheeran has shown support for Ukraine and he's delving into loads of different issues around Brexit, all this kind of stuff.
He said in this case he wanted to remain apolitical. Unfortunately for him, because he's dealing with these huge tours, huge stadiums, and people who don't agree. agree with what Macamore said. He has been dragged into this. He's been forced to take a side. And he has taken a side. He's taken uh the side of the billionaire owners. He's decided to remove Macamore from the tour. And I think what Macamore's
How did stadium owner Robert Kraft influence the decision to drop Macklemore?
Instagram post is so well written because it it it it couches What happened in the statements of we are having an open dialogue, but it's very clear that if you read what he said, that he I think he knew exactly what was going to happen because he said, I didn't need ten shows from Ed, I needed two. Two chances to stand in front of ninety thousand people and say the words that somehow became too dangerous to say. And that's what happened, what's happened here because essentially, you know, he said free Palestine. I think over here we've seen a lot of um You know, Irish and UK artists with like kneecap and Bob Villain and all this stuff, we've seen Fior around this and and people attempt to silence them.
We haven't really seen this to this level in terms of a big artist, a big American um set uh artist anyway, but like in this town is a tour in America. And yeah, I mean accusations of anti Semitism were thrown at MacLamore and he has tried to say this is
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why was Macklemore removed from Ed Sheeran’s US tour?
0:01–1:37
2
What did Macklemore say about his ‘Free Palestine’ statements on Instagram?
1:37–2:55
3
How did stadium owner Robert Kraft influence the decision to drop Macklemore?
2:55–5:00
4
Did Ed Sheeran choose to stay apolitical or give in to pressure?
5:00–6:39
5
Could Ed Sheeran have moved the tour dates instead of removing Macklemore?
6:39–8:19
6
What are the broader implications for artists speaking out on Palestine?
8:19–9:45
7
How do venue owners’ political ties affect concert bookings?
9:45–11:08
8
What listener feedback questions the ethics of dropping Macklemore?
11:08–12:00