Ed Sheeran tried his best to sidestep the thorny debate over the Israel-Gaza conflict when it landed at his feet — and somehow got stung even worse for the effort.
It’s been a tumultuous week-plus for the “Shape of You” singer thanks to a controversy kicked off by his Loop Tour dropping Macklemore after a group of stadium owners led by Robert Kraft called for his removal following the rapper’s onstage call to “free Palestine.” But the actual catalyst for the growing outrage hasn’t been about the conflict itself, but how Sheeran has handled the situation.
In a nut shell: not well.
“Sheeran is in big trouble,” Drew Kerr, veteran executive communications trainer for Four Corners Group, told TheWrap. “Sheeran’s statement was threading-the-needle ludicrous.”
The statement went something like this: I had nothing to do with the decision to remove Macklemore from my tour. I tried my best to save him but I don’t get involved in politics and anyway it was the stadium owners’ decision. He wrote on Instagram that he was “involved in direct talks with promoters along with activists on both sides to try and find a mutual resolution for all, but the venue’s and promoter’s decision was final.”
The firestorm underscores the tricky line any high-profile figure must walk when dealing with a topic as sensitive and divisive as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But by both refusing to take a stand and declining any responsibility in the decision to exit Macklemore, the singer managed to frustrate even more people who felt he didn’t defend the rapper’s right to free expression.
On Saturday, Sheeran addressed the controversy more directly on stage at Lincoln Field in Philadelphia. “I don’t want to disappoint fans, and I’ve never wanted to be an activist musician, but this has put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet,” he said.
But the damage has already been done as Sheeran wrestles with an impossible situation. Could he have avoided this fiasco? TheWrap talked to crisis communications experts to understand the early mistakes made, and how the superstar could have handled things better even while insisting on remaining neutral about the politics. The advice ranged from showing more empathy over the situation, sharing his own values (without necessarily taking a side) and focusing on the wellbeing of the bands and crew whose livelihoods depend on this tour.
The controversy is also a reminder that the teams that support high-profile figures need to better anticipate these kinds of situations, and include geopolitical quagmires into their calculations. Many of the experts who spoke to TheWrap were shocked that a global star like Sheeran was not better prepared for controversy, especially given Macklemore’s history of speaking out.
“Ed Sheeran’s team clearly did not have a comms strategy for this,” Michele Clark, a longtime crisis communications advisor, told TheWrap. “They likely had one for show cancellation, fan injury on site, and all the other ‘template’ scenarios, but no one was thinking deeply about geopolitical issues.
“And for a global artist, that’s shocking.”
A spokesperson for Sheeran didn’t respond to a request for comment.
What happened?
At Macklemore’s first show at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sept. 4, the rapper performed his protest anthem “Hind’s Hall” and told the crowd, a large part of the reason why he wanted to do the tour was so he “could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: Free Palestine.” His comments came on a backdrop of images of Gaza, Israeli soldiers and pro-Palestinian demonstrations, while he accused Israel of “genocide” and “apartheid.”
The next day, the Israeli-American Council wrote a petition calling for his removal, amid complaints from Jewish members of the audience who demanded their money back. They said Macklemore turned a music concert into a one-sided political statement and displayed imagery hostile to Jews and Israelis. In the days that followed Pink, among other individuals, said that Macklemore should be dropped from the tour.
“Palestinians deserve a future that honors their humanity and their aspirations,” Pink said, but condemned Macklemore for standing “in front of a stadium full of music-loving families, with violent images from a war on the screens, dedicated a song to the movement of his choice, and then took the mic to tell all of the Jews in the stadium that it wasn’t about them.”
During his second show a day later, Macklemore clarified that his call to “Free Palestine” wasn’t a criticism of Jewish people.
“To all of my Jewish brothers and sisters, criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide, in no way is a criticism of you,” Macklemore said during his second night opening for Sheeran at the MetLife Stadium. “My message is for peace, love (and) for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect and equality.”
On Sept. 14, Macklemore was dropped from the tour by its promoter, Messina Touring Group.
A day later, Sheeran shared his side of the story.
That’s when things began to really spiral.
How did he make things worse?
Sheeran posted a lengthy response to the situation on Instagram that oozed of him distancing himself from the controversy.
The singer shared that Macklemore asked to join his tour last year, saying that he was not the one who asked him. He also clarified that Macklemore’s removal from the tour was the promoter’s decision and not his.
“After Macklemore’s performances at my New Jersey shows, venues on my upcoming tour dates communicated that they would pull the shows if he was still supporting,” he wrote in a post to Instagram Tuesday. “I spoke with the venues at length all week to try and build a bridge. One of those people was Robert Kraft. I was also involved in direct talks with promoters along with activists on both sides to try and find a mutual resolution for all, but the venue’s and promoter’s decision was final.”
Sheeran added in his five-slide notes app statement to Instagram that he intentionally does not use his professional platform for politics because his audience often includes young people and children of all backgrounds. But the “Perfect” singer noted that he’s not complicit and has “personal views on this devastating conflict.”
That wasn’t enough, some experts said.
“The choice of emotion type and level here is wildly ineffective,” Clarke said.
“Sheeran’s position creates a messaging problem: presenting concerts as apolitical doesn’t settle whether removing an artist for political speech is itself a political choice,” Walter Fowler, a communications strategist at DigitallySavvy, told TheWrap. “That tension helps explain why this escalated into a broader argument about leadership, artistic freedom and accountability.”
The backlash came quickly. Danish pop band Lukas Graham, musician Finneas and Irish singer-songwriter Aaron Rowe dropped out of the Loop Tour. More guttingly, Beoga, the traditional Irish folk group that serves as Sheeran’s tour band, also left in solidarity with Macklemore.
“Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder, athlete and activist Colin Kaepernick, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), “Wicked” star Marissa Bode and others have all released statements denouncing the decision. Children’s YouTuber Ms. Rachel slammed him, saying “he caved to people who refuse to accept what the world knows.”
Still, others were more sympathetic to his situation. “[Sheeran] is in a difficult position, but I think he’s managing it the best he can, which is he’s trying to have the show go on,” Eric Schiffer, a crisis PR expert.
Shouldn’t he have known?
The other question that cropped up in discussions with communications experts was the lack of foresight.
The two musicians had been friends for more than a decade. The pair and Ryan Lewis released a song together in 2015 called “Growing Up,” and the year prior, Macklemore and the British pop A-lister had taken the stage together at the iHeartRadio Music Festival to perform the rapper’s hit “Same Love.”
The lines from Macklemore’s “Hind’s Hall” aren’t subtle. Hind Hall was the building occupied by protestors at Columbia University.
We see the lies in ’em
Claimin’ it’s antisemitic to be anti-Zionist
Yet the music industry’s quiet, complicit in their platform of silence
If I was on a label, you could drop me today
I’d be fine with it ’cause the heart fed my page
I want a ceasefire, fuck a response from Drake (woo)
What you willin’ to risk? What you willin’ to give?
“There is no way they did not know about Macklemore’s views,” Kerr said.
“This was a foreseeable issue that warranted advance planning with the artist, promoter and venues,” Fowler said.
What could he have done?
There were a few alternative routes Sheeran could have taken. Kerr recommended focusing on keeping the tour going and ensuring that the musicians, tech and support crew continue to make a living.
“If he focused on that … he could have won the respect of all his industry peers and avoided the ire of all his pro-Palestinian fans,” he said. “That may have also caused Kraft and the promoters to back down or work out some kind of mutual ‘donation to a cause’ deal because now they all look like villains in the eyes of fans and musicians alike.”
Sheeran did mention his crew and support acts, but three pages deep into his multi-point screed.
William Plummer, strategic and crisis communications veteran, supported Sheeran’s commitment to an apolitical stance. “It reflects his beliefs, to which everyone has a right, whether you agree with him or not,” he said.
But he suggested adding a fuller explanation of that stance, with a hint of self deprecation.
- I am an entertainer; I focus on bringing people together around common loves for strings of notes and lyrics.
- I’m not a geopolitical expert, and until and unless there is endless time every day, likely never will be.
- I don’t feel comfortable or confident in taking powerful positions on complex matters about which very few are fully-informed; These are not shallow matters.
- Other entertainers may choose to express personal political opinions, in some cases based on deep dives, in others perhaps not. I choose to focus on what I know and am skilled at, sharing harmony in our discordant world.
Following the backlash, Macklemore said he was donating the entire $1 millionof his net profits from participating in the Ed Sheeran Loop Tour to six organizations supporting Palestine. He also challenged stadium owner Robert Kraft, who led the charge to kick him off the Loop Tour, to do the same.
The billionaire stadium owner doubled Macklemore’s pledge and donated $2 million to aid Gaza’s “humanitarian crisis” on Wednesday amid blowback from the public.
“Earlier today, before Macklemore challenged me to match his donation, Ed called me and asked me to commit $2 million to match his donation to aid in the region to fight this humanitarian crisis,” Kraft wrote in a statement shared to Gillette Stadium’s official X account. “Ed now plans to reach out to other venue owners and our goal is to continue to work together to build bridges.”
Sheeran himself had been quiet until Saturday. And even then, he faced some criticism for reading off of a teleprompter.
“Sheeran is in the crosshairs,” Paul Rieckhoff, host of the Independent Americans Podcast, said on “Erin Burnett Outfront” Wednesday. “I don’t think neutrality is going to work here for me. But if anybody could do it, it’s Ed Sheeran, the guy that everybody loves and has a tendency to bring people together.”
The post How Ed Sheeran Turned a Firestorm Over Macklemore, Palestine and Free Expression Into a PR Debacle | Analysis appeared first on TheWrap.
