Ed Sheeran has responded to the Macklemore controversy, saying there’s a reason he doesn’t use his professional platform for politics, that his audience includes children of all backgrounds who come to his shows expecting safety, not a political forum. It’s a neat line, and for years it’s mostly held, because nobody has actually tested it.
But what Sheeran fails to realise is that he’s made the most political call of his career.
In case you missed it, Macklemore was the support act on Sheeran’s Loop Tour when he said “free Palestine” onstage. Within days, venues on Sheeran’s upcoming dates told him they’d pull the shows if Macklemore stayed on the bill. Macklemore was gone for the remainder of the tour. Sheeran says the promoter made the final call, not him. But the decision to let it stand, to protect the tour rather than the artist on it, was his to make and he made it.
That decision spectacularly contradicts his own record. Sheeran released a version of “2step” with proceeds going to Ukrainian humanitarian relief. In 2022, he headlined a concert for Ukraine and posted a video saying “to all Ukrainians, I love you, I stand with you.” None of that was private, and none of it was ever treated as political. It happened on the exact platform he now says he keeps free of politics.
So, neutrality was never really neutral. It was selective. One cause got the stage, the songs and the platform. The other got a phone call and and a hugely public exit. Choosing to defend one and go silent on the other isn’t stepping outside politics; it’s making a political choice and hoping nobody notices the pattern. Sheeran’s real decision wasn’t whether to be political. He’d already decided that years ago. It was which side of his own inconsistency he was willing to protect when it actually cost something.
Sheeran also says he’d never let down the fans, the crew or the other musicians who rely on him for work. I understand this, real jobs were genuinely on the line. But it’s not the only option a man with an estimated $400 million fortune, on a tour pushing his career past $2 billion in lifetime earnings, actually had. If venues were threatening to cancel over Macklemore, Sheeran could have covered the shortfall himself and still paid every person on that tour, crew included, while standing by the artist he says he respects. He had the means to protect both the workers and Macklemore. He chose to protect one and present it as the only choice available.
Following the ousting Mackelmore, Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga, announced will no longer take part in the tour, saying:
“I cannot stand by and allow billionaires to use their position of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up against Israeli genocide and who highlight the savage murder of children. I would lose all respect for myself to carry on as normal.
I need to be true to myself and my ancestors who resisted colonisation, and fought for a freedom that I enjoy today in Ireland.”
Like many colleagues, I’ve paid a small version of the cost public advocacy on polarising political issues attracts. It’s real, and I understand exactly why so many people run that calculation and decide against speaking. But it’s nothing next to what’s actually happening in Gaza, and barely a fraction of what an artist with Sheeran’s reach, power and fortune risks by comparison. He had the platform, power, and the standing to defend Macklemore the way he’s defended Ukraine. He chose not to, and dressed it up as neutrality.