Storm against Ed Sheeran and his American tour (“Tour Loop”), abandoned within a few hours by all the supporting artists in solidarity with Macklemore : the famous rapper from Seattle has been excluded from the next 8 US dates - where he was initially scheduled as guest of honor - after being targeted by pro-Israel groups and individuals for having remembered Israel's victims in the Gaza Strip during the first two concerts of the tour in New Jersey and chanted the slogan "Free Palestine".

The departure sparked protests in both the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as around the world and online, with accusations of censorship against the promoters and inconsistency against the British pop star. Within hours, a ripple effect was triggered among the other musicians asked to join Sheeran. The first was Aaron Rowe, an emerging Irish singer-songwriter, who declared on social media that he could not accept Macklemore's attack on freedom of expression, concluding his message by writing, "Free Palestine." Finneas O'Connell, Billie Eilish's brother and collaborator, followed suit: "Artists must not be silenced when they speak out for the oppressed."

And finally it was the turn of the Danish group Lukas Graham and especially Beoga, the band that has long accompanied Ed on stage. Macklemore had recently reported that he was removed from the tour under pressure from American billionaire Robert Kraft , owner of Gilet Stadium and the New England Patriots American football team, as well as a friend of Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump. Kraft had allegedly threatened to boycott the show at his stadium and other stadiums owned by business friends if the rapper wasn't dropped.

Sheeran, for his part, denied being "complicit" in a decision attributed to the organizers, but did not deny having been personally pressured by Kraft; he persisted in describing himself as "apolitical" (despite having previously spoken out, for example, against Russia's war in Ukraine). Criticism of him has come from figures on the British anti-war left, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a leading figure in the progressive wing of the American Democratic Party. In recent hours, Ocasio-Cortez has openly spoken of "censorship and a threat to artistic freedom and freedom of speech," adding that she's ready to "turn off the radio" the next time she hears Ed Sheeran sing.

(Unioneonline)

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