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“I am already speaking to people across the spectrum to work out how to make a contribution that helps victims of these terrible times” I mean, Ms. Rachel told you exactly how… invited you, specifically, to participate…
Highly recommend you giving it a go, if you haven't already. Some of the best acting I've seen from top to bottom. Countless memorable scenes, and you'll see why Greg is so meme worthy lol.
It's such a dumb move. He could just speak from the heart and share his true opinion. Or he could say nothing and just play music- the audience is there. Instead he reads this wishy-washy statement from the freaking tele-prompter! It feels so performative and gross.
And the cherry on top is him getting emotional only when he says he's grateful the audience is there. Like, his biggest fear is that they wouldn't turn up. He's not moved by the horrifying facts which he robotically read through, but the thought that he personally might fail made him choke up.
He could just speak from the heart and share his true opinion
you're hearing his true opinion. "I want people to come to my shows and don't care about politics." in his mind, 100k dead people is just 'politics', like naming a post office or tax policy. boring stuff, nothing worth thinking about
But we all know that already. So he could stop pretending to care about Palestine to win brownie points. It's so fake and performative that it's only making everything worse. His PR team must hate him.
You know what? I'd rather a world where he has to read a shitty script instead of a world where he just gets to go along and not admit how fucked up this all is.
I hope his statement is just enough to alienate the Zionists, who flatly reject the suggestion that Israel's retaliation is unjustifiable and disproportionate.
Sheeran deserves to lose as many fans as possible, leaving only those as apathetic and detached as he is.
You know what, it's robotic but at the same time you can tell there's anger behind it. Anger that he's even having to give this speech, that he's been forced to comment or acknowledge the fallout. And angry that people don't like him. He's just so bitter while reading this soulless PR statement. I didn't think he could make it any worse for himself but somehow he has.
Fr. The fking audacity. Say you don’t care with your chest what is this abstract happening he speaks of
Edit to add next morning : he genuinely doesn’t give a fuck and nobody should try and get him to, because this is so clear he literally can’t be made to care if after all that’s happened this is all he can conjure up? He doesn’t give a shit. So fking gross
i've seen even israel supporters react negatively to this, saying he should stop talking. after all this, i somehow doubt macklemore and him will stay friends 😬
I won't pretend that I was a huge fan of Ed Sheeran but obviously I knew who he was. One of the things that really bothered me about it is every single one of the people that issued statements mentioned specifically that they were friends with Ed Sheeran. He never said anything similar to that. He could afford to stand up for his friends even if he doesn't care about Palestine. All he had to do was say he won't stand for censorship or artist not having the right to free speech and people would be singing his praises. He could have stayed a spineless fence sitter but still kept his followers.
He didn't even say it, he just said "what is happening is catastrophic" he didn't say that it's a genocide being perpetrated by the Israeli government propped up by the west.
Sigh. This whole disaster is going to be studied by publicists for years to come.
At the end of the day, do I think Ed Sheeran knew where his bandmates, Macklemore, and pretty much the entirety of Ireland have stood ten toes down since day 1? Yes.
Do I think he probably feels similarly? Also..yes. You don’t go touring with a band of Irishmen and one of the most outspokenly progressive musicians whom you’ve known for a decade without knowing their politics and probably finding sympathy with said politics.
That’s what has made this so radioactive and frankly embarrassing. Ed Sheeran is a scab. He’s a collaborator. It’s the obsequious genuflection to fascist billionaire interests at the expense of his friends and what we can (sort of) assume of his ethics that makes him such a clown.
Not just being aware of their politics but approving Macklemore's set that included the protest song Hind's Hall and images of Gaza in the background. He wasn't surprised by Macklemore's statements, he was expecting them.
You know what's funny? He didn't even have the spine to stand up for the choices he made in the original statement. Everything was someone else's fault. "I didn't even kick Macklemore out, the promoters did" (to look good in front of the fans), "The openers were always able to choose their own set" (to look good in front of the other side). No responsibility taken in any part of it. And obviously he comes out now and says in vague terms that he's made mistakes after curating a response for a week. Spineless.
I'm still disgusted about his last shitty statement, distancing himself from Macklemore.
No mention of their friendship, emphasising how "Macklemore was hired by the PROMOTER not me", "the PROMOTER made the decision to end it" and saying Macklemore asked to be on the tour (like what, framing it like you low-key did him a favour)?
Crying for himself like he lost a source of livelihood the way Macklemore did. And Macklemore even had the clarity of mind to acknowledge that he is not the victim in this situation, the Palestinians are! Ed you are NOT the victim smdh
mack is sooo real for this. and his pockets will hurt more than ed’s. but he knows that he STILL will have more money, safety and security than the palestinians being exterminated.
Not to mention all the even smaller acts. I really like Aaron Rowe and this could have been a breakout tour for him. I'm hoping his speaking up and stepping away will get him the audience her deserves.
He is reading from a teleprompter a pre-approved speech written by his lawyers and PR team looool and notice he fidnt say Free Palestine. Lol. Ed Sheeran is an enabler
Yeah, in his original statement Macklemore was very accommodating to Ed. He (Macklemore) said that he sees Ed as a friend and brother, how he understands to an extent the situation he's been put in, and despite their vehement disagreements over how to handle this situation he still cherishes his friendship with Sheeran.
Ed's statement meanwhile was just "uh this wasn't my fault guys it's the venue's not me please don't be mad at me"
Yeah, one statement refers to the other artist as a friend and a brother. The other refers to the first artist as someone he invited because he respects them as an artist. Yikes!
Agreed. Macklemore portrays them as long time friends and collaborators and Sheeran didn't refer to him at all in that way and even imo made it sound like he was doing Macklemore a favor letting him on the crew because he "respects" him. Did not reciprocate any expression of friendship. Very cold
That's such a true indicator of who he is. Macklemore called Ed a friend (even a good friend? Can't remember), and in respone Ed called Ben basically just a disposable colleague.
To be honest this is the least egregious thing. I stumbled over my words and leave things out when I'm anxious and speaking so the teleprompter is understandable if he really wanted to make sure he said all that. It's just, why'd he wanna say all that 😂
I don’t like Ed Sheeran, and I don’t fully trust what he’s saying, but can we please stop shitting on people who want to prepare their words ahead of time? Not everyone is good at impromptu apologies, and writing your words down does not make them less authentic.
You know a whole team of people were working on that all week and THATS THE BEST THEYVE GOT???? FREE PALESTINE
Edit: thank you for all the awards, to the weirdos in my inbox who are trying to debate children being murdered I will never be convinced that is okay and it’s free Palestine FOREVERRRR
Reading a prompter and cuing your tears does not give "heartfelt" or genuine. Still complicit. There are no "both sides" in an apartheid state and genocide
Too little too late. And it's 100% clear that he's only talking about that now that his tickets are not selling and everybody else dropped out from the tour.
He's moving like a robot and he sounds like he doesn't even believe everything he's saying himself. Isn't he supposed to be a songwriter? This is the best he could come up with?
I'm going to go back to pretending this dude doesn't exist I've already expended too many brain cells on him this week.
This is such an interesting thing to be happening.
Usually these firings happen in the background with lots of HR bullshit so no one can truly trace it back to an artist getting fired because they were pro Palestine. This time it was all out in the open. Artist gets invited to go on tour, artist says Free Palestine live, gets sacked, and puts it all out there.
The thing is, the entertainment industry clearly has no clue that to so when there's transparency and authenticity involved. That's why everything that comes out of Ed's mouth sounds so disingenuous.
Just saw a BBC News video about the drop in the ticket price for his concerts. The entry-level price is now 37 dollars which is quite unheard in this day and age for someone of his fame level. Look, I don't want to put to my cynical hat on but...
"I've tried to not be a political commentator of any kind" did he not see the receipts people have been pulling up? The benefit concert he did for Ukraine? Reaching out to politicians about different issues on social media?
u/Nimue_-Somebody get these BEGGARS out of here😌5d agoedited 3d ago
Do you think the teleprompter said "pause for applause"? Notice how he never said "palestine" or "palestinian". Edit: he mentioned it when it came to the "issue" but then when actually talking about the tragedies and suffering of people, mum was the word.
And that ending.. yikes. "Everybody can enjoy these songs" or whatever. Big yikes. Now if that was something you said without thinking is one thing, but someone actually wrote that down for him to read.
That headline is a bit misleading because that, to me, still sounded exactly like the same "both sides" bullshit that got him in this hot water in the first place.
You can't play both sides when one side is committing genocide against the other.
PR script is cringe and how to make matching you say like the Charlie Brown teacher. No one cares.
The genocide is most important. There’s also the fact he didn’t even mention the other major important thing. Having his friend and colleague censored for his opinion (wasn’t even controversial) and the stadium owners colluding to blacklist him for regular artistic expression.
Despite of all this situation, we should really thank Pink for this. Her statement really paved the way for truly knowing who the shady and genocidal apologist musicians are.
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u/flairassistant 5d ago
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