People such as Macklemore are carrying on the mantle of another generation of artistes-activists such as Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Harry Belafonte and Woody Guthrie who too believed that their art was a powerful medium to amplify the voice of the oppressed.<\/p>\n
It was 2012. I was in the second year of college, Nokia QWERTY phones were still in use, and most of us believed in the rumour that the viral Gajendra Verma song Emptiness<\/a>\u00a0(tune mere jaana) was sung by an IIT Guwahati student named Rohan Rathore<\/a>, who \u201cdied of cancer\u201d just 15 days after composing it for his unrequited love.<\/p>\n Two songs made it to the top of the charts that same year \u2013 Ed Sheeran\u2019s Give Me Love<\/a>, and Macklemore\u2019s rap number Thrift Shop<\/a>, sung with Ryan Lewis and Wanz, which won multiple Grammys<\/a>.<\/p>\n I remember that both songs would play multiple times during a day on 9XO, the popular English-language music TV channel.<\/p>\n Being a fan of soft rock ballads such as Billy Joel\u2019s Piano Man<\/a>, Elton John\u2019s Candle in the Wind<\/a>, John Lennon\u2019s Woman<\/a>, and Queen\u2019s Love of my Life<\/a>, I was naturally biased in favour of Sheeran\u2019s Give Me Love, a song that spoke of paint-splattered teardrops on shirts and a rhythm which gradually built up, as Sheeran hummed about blood turning into alcohol, to his screaming, guttural refrain of \u201cLove me\u201d, sung with a searing urgency.<\/p>\n Fourteen years later, fast forward to 2026. I have graduated from college, and also from being addressed as “bhaiya (brother)” to “uncle”.<\/p>\n And I have chosen Macklemore over Sheeran.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n Because despite his reputation of being one of the best singer-songwriters of our time whose lyrics explore and understand the complexities of human emotions such as love and pain, Sheeran chose to stay silent and look the other way, even as a genocide<\/a> perpetrated by Israel keeps wiping out countless innocent Palestinians on a daily basis.<\/p>\n Macklemore speaks out in support of Palestinians<\/p>\n Macklemore, on the other hand, didn\u2019t hesitate to speak his mind.<\/p>\n \u201cI have been trying to figure out a way to say this all day. One of the reasons why we wanted to come on this tour was because I wanted to stand up here on stages and stadiums across America and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart. Free Palestine. I said Free Palestine. I want those words to be loud and clear, so that people from Gaza all the way to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten them,\u201d said Macklemore on September 4<\/a>, during his first appearance of Sheeran\u2019s Loop tour.<\/p>\n As Macklemore spoke the words \u201cFree Palestine\u201d, the audience at the Metlife stadium in New Jersey gave a rousing applause to the rapper, whose song Hind\u2019s Hall<\/a>\u00a0speaks of the rubble, the buildings, the mothers and the children, and of Hind Rajab, the five-year-old girl Palestinian girl<\/a> who was killed by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).<\/p>\n The backlash was swift. Despite Macklemore saying during his same speech, \u201cto all of my Jewish brothers and sisters, criticism of Israel, criticism of Apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you,\u201d he was accused of furthering \u201cantisemitism\u201d by Zionist groups, who also found support in celebrities such as the renowned singer Pink<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dropped from the tour<\/p>\n The result?<\/p>\n Macklemore was removed<\/a> as a supporting act from the rest of Sheeran\u2019s stadium tour in the US. He was earlier supposed to appear at eight of the ten remaining shows of Sheeran\u2019s tour in the US.<\/p>\n Since then, Jewish-American billionaire Robert Kraft, who is also the owner of the US football team the New England Patriots, has confirmed that he pressured Sheeran<\/a> to drop Macklemore.<\/p>\n Kraft is known to enjoy the support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, against whom the International Criminal Court (ICC), has issued an arrest warrant<\/a> for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\n Back in 2019, Netanyahu had heaped praises on Kraft, saying, \u201cIsrael does not have a more loyal friend than Robert Kraft.\u201d<\/p>\n While it was not unexpected that Zionist, pro-Israel groups in the US would attack Macklemore, I was appalled by the rather surprising reaction of Sheeran, who washed his hands of any responsibility by saying<\/a> that the decision to remove Macklemore from the line-up of his tour was not taken by him, but that of his promoter, the Messina Touring Group.<\/p>\n Sheeran\u2019s defence of the indefensible<\/p>\n If things were not already bad, Sheeran made it worse by trying to explain his position, talking about the suffering and pain caused on \u201cboth sides\u201d of the Gaza war and saying that he doesn\u2019t use his professional platform for politics because his \u201caudience includes young people, often children, of all backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n It would have been better, if Sheeran, whose duet Everything Has Changed<\/a>\u00a0with Taylor Swift is a song picturised on two children, actually thought about the number of children killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza.<\/p>\n Watch: 1,000 Days After October 7, Four Essential Questions Remain | Palestine Ambassador to India<\/a><\/p>\n According to the United Nations, Israel has so far killed 20,000 Palestinian children<\/a> and injured 44,000 more since October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n As for young people, Sheeran should know that in the UK itself \u2013 his own country \u2013 young students, from Oxford to Cambridge University<\/a>, have encamped in university campuses and taken to streets to protest against the genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\n In the US, the 2024 Columbia University encampment<\/a> held in solidarity with Palestinians in which hundreds of youngsters took part, reflected the outrage against the genocide and continued support of Israel by the US.<\/p>\n Other artistes stand with Macklemore in solidarity<\/p>\n On the brighter side, Sheeran\u2019s meek defence of the indefensible couldn\u2019t stop the mass exodus of artistes from the line-up of his tour after Macklemore was dropped.<\/p>\n All of Sheeran\u2019s supporting acts, including singers Finneas, Aaron Rowe, the Danish pop band Lukas Graham and the Irish band Boga, withdrew from Sheeran\u2019s tour<\/a>, in solidarity of Macklemore.<\/p>\n As global superpowers such as the US continue to support Israel\u2019s racist, genocidal stance against Palestinians, people such as the Seattle-born Macklemore are carrying on the mantle of another generation of artistes-activists<\/a> such as Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Harry Belafonte and Woody Guthrie who too believed that their art was a powerful medium to amplify the voice of the oppressed.<\/p>\n Despite being of much bigger net worth and global popularity than Macklemore, the 43-year-old rapper, Sheeran, with his massive fan following worldwide, fails to stand on the right side of history.<\/p>\n Just thinking out loud (pun intended).\u00a0<\/p>\n This article went live on September nineteenth, two thousand twenty six, at twenty-five minutes past three in the afternoon.<\/p>\n