The pressure on Ed Sheeran keeps growing. After Greta Thunberg, Charlotte Church has also joined the debate about the British pop star, Macklemore, and the war in Gaza. The Welsh singer publicly attacked Sheeran during her show End Times Pop Dungeon in Cardiff. Rolling Stone Deutschland ↗
Church argued that thanks to his success, Sheeran has not only considerable wealth but also enormous reach — and that, in her view, he could use it to change something in society. According to her accusation, however, he chose "consumerism and capitalism" instead of what, from her perspective, is right. Rolling Stone Deutschland ↗
She also firmly rejected the notion that musicians should stay out of political debates. In her view, politics is part of life, and therefore nothing that artists could fundamentally distance themselves from. She then had the audience chant "We're watching you" toward Sheeran, followed by "Free Palestine." Rolling Stone Deutschland ↗
The background to the dispute is the controversy surrounding Macklemore's performances as the opening act on Sheeran's Loop tour. The American rapper, at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey in early September, expressed support for Palestinians and performed his protest song "Hind's Hall." Sheeran was in the meantime defended by Bob Geldof, who stated that it is not his place to tell people what to think. Rolling Stone Deutschland ↗
Sheeran has since commented on the matter personally as well. At a concert in Philadelphia on September 19, he apologized for the way he handled the situation around Macklemore's removal, and for the first time spoke openly about Gaza — calling it "catastrophic, inexcusable, and disproportionate." BBC News ↗
Illustrative photo: Charlotte Church. Photo: Rob Online / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Charlotte Church joined the critics of Ed Sheeran. She had the audience in Cardiff chanting Free Palestine
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