It's time, once again, to talk about, yes, none other than Ed Sheeran.

In the wake of recent controversies around him regarding Israel, Palestine, and the removal of Macklemore from the big stadium tour he is in the midst of right now. Now, when we did the original video around this topic, we had offhandedly mentioned Ed Sheeran putting out a statement himself, which was not great and had a litany of different issues. Like I said in that original video, a bunch of Ed's supporting acts and even his own backing band backed out of this tour, basically out of disgust and offense with the position or non-position he's attempting to take here.

But despite those changes, Ed's tour is continuing and feeling unsatisfied with giving a white text over black background notes app type statement, decided to speak publicly at a Philly date on the tour, and basically let the audience know how he was feeling. And like that original note, the results were pretty unimpressive.

Now, I want to address the question of where I stand in the situation in Israel and Palestine, and whether my doing this concert here tonight implies where I stand. I have tried in my career not to be a political commentator of any kind, because I want my music and shows to be about unity, not division. About humanity, not politics. But this is a humanitarian issue, and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore. What happened in Israel and at the Nova Music Festival on October 7th was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate. My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians' lives, of children's lives. And the systemic injustice we're seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked.

As you can see, Edward launches immediately into the topic of October 7th here. Simply refers to the situation as a conflict. Refuse to call it a genocide. In front of his audience insisting that instead his concerts and his performances are supposed to be a place of love and unity and escapism.

Which personally, I find the act of reducing artistic performances down to simply those things to be kind of stupid. Not just stupid, but actively playing a part in making your audience dumber, frankly. Because how are these things and addressing the political plight of an oppressive people mutually exclusive things? If we rewind back to Macklemore's statement that originally got him in hot water on that stage in the first place, what he was saying there in front of that audience was undoubtedly said from a place of love and concern, as well as care for not only Palestinians, but Jewish people as well.

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. My message is for peace, love, for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality.

How is Ed's non-statement here, or his proclamation of fear to address these topics, somehow more out of an act of love than what Macklemore was doing? The truth is, it's not. It's completely out of cowardice, not love.

If anything, it's out of Ed's love for money that he's doing this. He doesn't want to fuck up the bag and lose these tour dates because I'm sorry, how is creating a concert space in an arena-sized venue fixing or helping a genocide that's happening an ocean away? Are the children and families who are being bombed and starved at the hands of the Israeli government supposed to be feeling like a sense of unity and togetherness with the people in that audience where their struggles are not being mentioned or brought up in any way?

His concerts are supposed to be about unity, which again, how was Macklemore's original statement here flying in the face of that? Looking at the audience reception to his words, kind of seemed like most of the people there were in agreement with him.

Free Palestine. I said free Palestine.

Macklemore's statement was clearly not being said out of a wish to create division among those in the audience. In fact, I would say he wrote and engineered it to be as agreeable as possible, putting a focus on the most extreme elements of this atrocity that even the average person would find offensive who has a very low-level awareness of what's going on.

But despite the fact that this genocide has been broadcast straight into our internet feeds for the past several years now, Ed can't even be bothered to take that simple little tiny baby step and instead has to push the narrative that to bring up anything that might be even a little political or even a little stressful would be disrespectful and inconsiderate to his audience and I guess the kids in the crowd too.

I guess because Ed sees his performances as like these stupid mindless baby brain shows where the awful realities of the world that we live in just like don't exist. Which I mean, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but those things do exist whether you want to pretend they do or not. Willing yourself into ignorance with Ed Sheeran in front of like a pink fucking looper backdrop on stage is just pure delusion. I'm sorry, but like your minor bit of comfort in that isn't worth trading for the livelihoods and safety of people who are being oppressed under an apartheid boot.

Ironically enough, Ed also made a few other embarrassing statements during this performance. One where he talks about removing the B part of the stage that puts him out in the center of the audience because he says, that he feared he would be like pelted with stuff or even attacked if he went out there.

To be honest, I usually go out to a B stage and I'm going to be totally honest with you. I didn't know what this audience would be like tonight. I didn't know if I have things thrown at me. I didn't know if people would be in the room. I apologize that today is not the usual loop show. I took the B stage out because I was afraid of what might happen if I stood in the middle and I will admit that.

So ridiculous and so fucking self-centered.

Sure, Ed, the real victim here is you maybe getting something thrown at you while there's kids in Palestine who are having real bombs actually thrown at them on a regular basis. And what's funny beyond this is that Ed's very kind of minor non-statement here, it's kind of like he could barely even stand on that because toward the end of the show, he even had to apologize for making even that. statement and shed some crocodile tears on the stage, too, which you can see right here:

The one thing that I would like to apologize for is the first bit of the show where it wasn't about music and I had to talk. And I understand that people have children here and I understand the families didn't buy a ticket to hear that first bit of the show. But that was something I felt like I needed to say. I felt there was a lot of questions that I needed to answer. So to all the parents then that have brought their kids here tonight, thank you so much for bringing them, and I do apologize for the first bit of the show. My shows are about this. They're about unity. They're about love. They're about family.

Honestly, if I was actually an Ed Sheeran fan at this concert, I would genuinely feel insulted because how much of a moron do you think I fucking am? That I can't sit here for one minute, 90 seconds and withstand you saying to me, “Hey, guys, look, I think there's bad things going on in the world. I love all people. My concerts are about love and unity, so on and so forth.”

Such a nothing burger. And then you have to later down the road apologize for even that because in your mind, your audience is just so packed with fucking dimwits that for them to even sit through that is like: Edward, no, please stop. This is supposed to be a place for just shitty, bland pop music. Don't remind me of things going on in the world, Edward. No, no, Edward, no!

Again, it just goes to further show how entitled and weird and stupid a lot of audiences are around pop music right now. At least some sectors in the industry that are just content to live in fucking la la land. Don't make me consider the world I live in and please just spoon feed me that sweet, sweet “Shape of You” garbage.

It's too painful. It's too torturous. It's too agonizing for Ed and his fans to consider the plight, the pain, the suffering of others. And so because of that, we have to turn a blind ear and a blind eye to all of that stuff in the name of “love”. It's like this BS idea of not mixing politics with music.

Music is art and art is supposed to be a reflection of human emotion and the human condition. I'm sorry, but if a cornerstone of your art and performing it is ignoring those who are suffering and ignoring those who are less privileged, then frankly, I don't think you're much of an artist. There's probably not much heart and emotion behind what you're doing.

Which is why, again, it's important to highlight these issues and re-center the significance and the urgency of this genocide. Because ultimately, Ed Sheeran and all of those fans who heard Macklemore's message on those couple of stages those nights are not the victims here.