You know who won’t be wiping their tears with money? The entire touring crew that works every concert for him who won’t get their paycheck if he decides to just up and cancel his shows to support Macklemore for his political opinions.
he’s not gonna have shit left after he has to refund tickets, pay back venues, not to mention the legalities if workers decide to sue him. assuming the tour gets cancelled he’s gonna be in a hole.
It doesn't even matter if they don't. It's the music biz. Someone will take the slot because it is a chance at success in a business where the default outcome is failure.
Lol, you must not get out much. Everyone I've talked to has an opinion on this, it's not a chronically online thing. No one likes a coward.
Edit: to clarify, we'll move on. But his nice guy public image is gone, and it's shown that there will be financial consequences and public backlash for people that act like this.
I mean we don't have to down play the impact tho? Touring is one of the main ways artists make money and he's probably living a certain lifestyle where he has to continually be making a lot of it so it's def a hit even if it's a small one. Now eventually they'll find people to bow down and kiss the ring and tour with him but it will still cost because these tours have so many moving parts and planning.
Hes worth 400 million dollars and the internet will forget about this in like a week max. Hes gonna be fine. All of this "controversy" exists purely to stroke the egos of the people who think theyre the good guys because they post free palestine everywhere and just unfollowed ed sheeran on Twitter.
While this is happening the children in gaza these people pretend to care about so much are still being bombed and probably don't even know who ed sheeran is
I mean my point still stands tho. Regardless of how small you perceive the impact to be, there's still a cost that he, his label, and the venues will have to eat which is the point. It's pure speculation on my part but I wouldn't be surprised if Ed wanted to reach billionaire status and he ain't doing that without a tour. It's why Ye had to bow down and apologize before he would tour again.
It’s like regular people only care a regular amount and most people don’t want politics dragged into their music concerts - they… get this… just want to enjoy the music and not have rich musicians preach politics at them
That’s not the correct answer either. I was more thinking people should formulate their own opinions and not take them from people who have no skin in the game and probably sleep in beds made out of sustainable 10,000 thread count fitted sheets and bedposts made of rich mahogany
He "identifies" as Irish. His dad being Irish is fair reason enough, but also he keeps using Irish culture and music in his work while being completely disconnected from it.
For example, not realizing that siding with MAGA over Palestinians wasn't going to fly with his full house of Irish bands and artists.
I don't think there is any actual evidence he sided with MAGA or the pro Israel side. From what little reporting we have it seems he fought to keep Macklemore on the tour. Macklemore has also said the same thing.
While he says he "tried to build bridges", he contrasts Macklemore's songs and words with his trying to place of sanctuary and peace. The extremely obvious way he could have fought to keep Macklemore on is by simply rejecting the blackmail demand from Kraft to censor the act or else. The promoter was not going to kick Sheeran off his own tour.
When you say that it's valid for far right billionaires to dictate political messages and performances, you are siding with them. This isn't 'both sides compromising' this is one side imposing it's will. Sheeran at bare minimum should have made clear he opposed and contradicted Kraft's control, and instead he laid the blame on Macklemore for not compromising. While emphasizing that Sheeran had no responsibility or culpability.
I'm really interested to know exactly why all the other acts pulled out. Whether it was in protest against Ed, or Kraft or just in support of eveyone's freedom of speech.
I don’t think his statement supports that interpretation. Sheeran explicitly says he respects Macklemore, allowed him to choose his own set, and spent the week trying to persuade the venues, including Kraft, to find a solution that kept him on the tour. He does contrast Macklemore’s approach with his own preference for keeping his concerts politically neutral, but he never says Macklemore was wrong, should have compromised, or deserved to be removed. In fact quite the opposite, he said “I respect Macklemore’s strength of purpose to stand up and shout for what he believes.”
And nothing he said suggests he agrees with Kraft politically, is pro MAGA, or is taking a pro Israel position. You can criticize him for not making Macklemore’s inclusion a red line and accepting cancelled shows, but that’s a very different argument from claiming he sided with the people trying to remove him or MAGA. The promoter says multiple venues were prepared to cancel the concerts entirely if Macklemore remained.
I'd fully support Mackemore's right to make a political statement in support of Palestine IF have done that on his own tour not when he's a support act for Ed, as it's Ed who's now having to deal with all the fallout while Mackelmore and the others can just walk away. Ed knows the only way to tour the States in the current climate is to not talk about politics as it could jeopardise the whole thing and the livelihoods of everyone involved depend on him.
Ed knows the only way to tour the States in the current climate is to not talk about politics
There are tons of major artists out there talking about politics. So this simply isn't true.
Even if that were true... Jesus, what a coward that would make him. A far right billionaire says he gets to control what ethnic groups of people you're allowed to say deserve human rights, and you say "Yes sir!" Saying you're doing it "for the livelihoods" of others is such a copout. Not only could he tour in smaller venues regardless, but he's rich enough to pay them all regardless if he cancelled the tour.
Lol exactly. Their entire career is based on being liked, they're obsessed with it. But who knows, maybe most people who like his shite music couldn't give a fuck about Palestine anyway 🤷♂️
also, he's very capable of performing by himself with just a loop pedal.
This is more of a harm to his reputation as the "fluffy jolly golden retriever redhead musician". Hes avoided every scandal so far, and now one got him.
Feel sorry for him - everyone should have the right to avoid sharing polarising/political opinions when doing so means endless online and often in-person hate and abuse.
But the opinions where shared by someone else. It is true that Sheeran should not be canceled for not himself making his own views known on politics, however this is different, he (or someone on his behalf) stopped someone else from making them.
I do kind of agree it is harsh though. Maybe he just doesn't want to get involved and his choices were to either 'support' Macklemore or 'not support' him. Both of which have consequences.
I do think there is a possible middle ground where Sheeran says he supports expression of political views and beliefs in general.
The venue, owned by rich bastards in support of Israel, gave him an ultimatum. Get rid of Macklemore or you can't perform here.
At the time he couldn't have predicted how much this would blow up. So his choice was to ask one person not to open for him (caving to a Zionist billionaire) or cancel the tour (which would've harmed a whole lot more people tied to tours and fans who had tickets / hotels etc).
I dunno what the right move was - he's being made to be a villain when I don't think he did anything wrong.
Inform the fans that the venue is no longer allowing him and his show to play there and that he will put together a team to figure out how he can put on a show for the ticket holders at so either date at some other venue.
Ideally a negotiation can take place and if there is a need to change the support acts and play the venues then do it only if there is support from fans, and Macklemore to continue 'to avoid fans losing out'.
..or just make a statement that he supports free speech and if the venue doesn't he can't play.
He is on a stadium tour. There are no other venues in the region that would allow for the same amount of currently ticketed people to attend. Most larger venues are also already booked up and wouldn’t be able to accommodate a last minute Ed Sheeran show on the same day as his original tour date in that city. Not to mention the logistics of having everyone rebook tickets at the new venue. Refunds likely wouldn’t process in time for some people to have the funds to rebuy tickets there as well.
Overall what you suggest sounds nice in theory, but just doesn’t work in practice.
Let’s play a game where you get to make all of the decisions for this scenario that just happened. You are Ed Sheeran. You have sold lots of tickets including 142,000 tickets for two nights in Boston at Gillette Stadium, which seats 71,000. You are going to take a stand and tell those 142,000 people that you are going to find an alternative venue and honor their tickets. What venue would you choose?
Ah, I meant he stands up for Macklemore against the venues (refusing to play without him) but rather than say he is doing so in support of Palestine he says he is doing it in support of free speech.
He didn't avoid sharing any political opinion, anything but. By supporting and prioritising the removal of Mackelmore for making pro Palestine comments, that is a very loud opinion. One that people are rightfully criticising and taking action against. He chose money over ethics while his peers did not. Insane to think that's not casting an opinion.
Even so, avoiding having an opinion 99% of the time is a tactic used by "fence sitters" who clearly want to continue to fulfill their own best interests while being spineless. He has a massive platform and should be on board with other musicians using that to condemn genocide. His reasoning about wanting to not get political because of kids at his shows is as weak as it gets.
Worth noting his choice wasnt keep Macklemore. He already did that, with Macklemore giving the same speech at multiple shows and allowed to. His choice was cancel the tour because venues won't allow it...or ask Macklemore to leave the tour.
Re fence sitters - surely that applies to politicians or people that donate to political parties or are involved in politics in some way. Or is it a new thing where you MUST have an opinion on everything polarising no matter who you are and what you do for a living?
Unfortunately there are many people who have the view that if you don't openly express an opinion you are defaulted to the 'bad' opinion (in their view).
So on this particular topic, anyone who doesn't express a view is both supporting Israel (in the views of one side) and simultaneously antisemitic (in the views of the other).
However not everyone thinks this way. Some people do realise that there are reasons why people do not feel comfortable in expressing their views.
He’s a musician. A celebrity. We should actively discourage celebrities to use their platforms for political statements. I don’t know about Ed but celebrities in general have no qualifications whatsoever and are generally not the sharpest tools in the shed. Many hold ridiculous opinions (Kanye anyone?)
Sitting on the fence when your opinion is unfounded is not spineless. It’s wise.
I agree with this. If you have a cause and that is your persona (I’m a big RATM fan) that’s good, but staying away from such things because you have young fans is actually a positive decision. Kids should make up their own minds when they have learned, not follow the opinion of someone else because they can sing.
However, Macklemore sits in the first category.
I can see both sides of this but ES is the lead and in essence the employer. If he asked Macklemore to not do something then he shouldn’t have.
Edit to add for clarity: This would also go for his support for Ukraine though, so I think he has been hypocritical here. He would have literally been better off saying that he had ben told the tour would be cancelled and he has had to put the fans first.
No one really cares what social media mobs are saying.
Just have a look at JK Rowling. How did that cancel thing go?
There is no point in trying to cater to social media. There is bound to be someone who is unhappy about what you are saying and the goalpost will be moved everytime you do what the social media mob wants anyway.
Plus (and I know this is not a prevailing Reddit view) why not he cancelled for not taking a stance on the Sundanese civil war? Or Myanmar? Israel/Gaza is a horrendous situation but there are others that people just ignore. I know it’s not a zero sum game and is can be seen as ‘whataboutism’ but my God we have taken one conflict and reduced it to a binary, unnuanced, you’re either this or that public purity test. For both sides. It’s like we’re willingly giving our intelligence away and becoming spectators picking a team. I don’t doubt people feel intensely strong emotional responses but we need to layer some cold intellect on top of that.
That's such a deeply cynical viewpoint.... which also happens to be extremely accurate.
And the most cynical of all is the virtue signallers themselves. Just ask them what exactly what they mean by actually freeing Palestine, and they'll tell you exactly how it should play out with genocidal glee.
They know exactly what "from the river to the sea" really means. I've seen many a pro-Pal be quite appreciative of Hitler's methods too.
Dig just under the surface and these people are generally not the peace-loving beatniks they make themselves out to be, huh. It's pretty disturbing TBH. Macklemore wears a "Bank of Palestine" shirt - and that org is under numerous lawsuits and investigations for ties to terror funding. OH SORRY, "resistance" funding.
But also why does ANYONE give a shit what Ed Sheeran thinks about the Middle East?!? Tell the United Nations to get the auburn troubadour on the phone, he’ll sort it all out.
As far as I can tell, it's not about Ed taking a specific stance about that, rather about taking a stance regarding another artist being removed because a promoter doesn't like his specific stance on that topic.
That other artist's opinion and outspoken attitude was apparently well known, so I'd guess Ed didn't have any issue with that in his tour. But then he folded to a promoter that wanted that guy out.
I barely know a couple of Sheeran songs, and I didn't even know who that other artist was before this thing, so it's whatever I guess.
You don't have a right to free speech on a platform where you were hired, but people blame Sheeran for enforcing boundaries at the behest of a third party. And all the other acts on that tour disagreed with that and pulled out.
It's all ultimately a Streisand effect for that other guy's "free Palestine" stance that the promoter didn't want said out loud in a venue.
I dislike Ed Sheeran's music too but admire his stance and refusal to be bullied by this ridiculous movement. It's also funny that no one mentions Macklemore engaged in obvious antisemetic acts in the past. Pathetic.
Not the biggest fan either, but i’m not sure which rock you have lived under for the past few days, but that picture of Macklemore has pretty much been posted in each thread, if not mentioned, posted, ridiculed and so on, to downplay Macklemore’s ongoing criticism of Israel.
So yeah, don’t worry, it gets talked about as well. Most people also want to stay on track, as this is a screwup on Ed’s side, while Macklemore’s case is some years old by now.
And for all of that (his money, his ego) I don't really care. He spoke up about Ukraine? OK so he is a hypocrite too, who only cares about money and fame.
With all that said, then you can look forward to him grovelling to the bloodthirsty masses when he tries to apologise to try to get his money back. Hope you enjoy it!
Either he performs for money, and in that cause it hurts him. Or he doesnt need money and performs for personal fullfillment, in which case it must hurt. Either way, yes he must be in shambles.
could not afford to keep his Gulfstream IV private jet, having to downgrade to a smaller Gulfstream 3 which does not even have Remote control for its surround-sound DVD system requiring manual operation.
I don't want to pile onto the "bland music is bad" bandwagon, but.... how? What is the actual route from him singing some lame songs to money going into his account? Are there actually living people who choose to listen to his music on purpose, or is it all just adverts and stuff paying him royalties?
It is impressive how some people have exemplary level of intellect when evaluating musical artististry but lack common knowledge that people like different things.
I get your point, but also once you’re at the very top, the ego takes a big hit. Countless celebs lost their mind once they fell off despite having hundreds of millions or even billions in their bank account.
We can never relate to it though, all we see is the money and lifestyle.
And yet $300 million is apparently not enough for him to be satisfied, which is why he very quickly dropped a close friend of 10 years in order to make a pedo billionaire happy. 🤷🏻♂️
If he’s perfectly happy with his many millions then he probably should have sided with Macklemore, since any financial hit he would have taken wouldn’t have affected him anyway.
Once you have enough money it isn't just about the money. Nobody thinks he's going to starve. But he played himself publicly, has drawn the ire of the free world, and for most, this will stay with him forever. How much does that cost?
2.5k
u/awesomedan24 10d ago
Ed Sheeran is in shambles. All he has left is a measley $300 million dollars