Ed Sheeran, perhaps best known for writing the kind of music that your second cousin chooses to play for the father-daughter dance at her wedding, cemented his status as a floppy-spine dummy this week by bending the knee to American billionaire idiot Robert Kraft. After rapper Macklemore's statement on Monday that he had been dropped from Sheeran's tour due to pressure from billionaire NFL owners over his vocal support for the Palestinian people, Sheeran further beclowned himself by opting to defer responsibility for the decision of who plays on his own tour.
"I was also involved in direct talks with promoters along with activists on both sides to try and find a mutual resolution for all," Sheeran wrote in a multi-bulleted Instagram statement defending his choice to allow rich guys to determine his line-up, "but the venue's and promoter's decision was final."
There is no "mutual resolution for all" when you are being strong-armed like this. What's embarrassing about Sheeran's response here is that he does not seem to understand that his pants have been pulled down around his ankles. Instead of pulling them back up, or even saying that it's rude to have done this, he's tripping forward as if nothing has happened.
It is not true that what the promoters and venues decide for Sheeran's tour is what goes. Sheeran's name is the one on the poster. Sure, he might lose a lot of money by refusing to play those show dates, but it is ultimately his decision to continue to play them. And since he has made that decision, his other opening acts have made theirs.
Following Sheeran's statement—in which he said, among other things, "I am not complicit," which is exactly the sort of thing complicit people feel the need to state—the rest of his opening acts for the U.S. Tour (and a few for the Brazil leg) have released statements of their own.
Aaron Rowe wrote that, "as Irish people we know all too well about genocide, forced famine and violent occupation. I need to be true to myself and my ancestors who resisted colonization, and fought for a freedom that I enjoy today in Ireland." Sheeran's backing band, Beoga, released a statement that ended with, "Up the workers. Free Palestine." Finneas dropped out, saying, "Artists must not be silenced ... I stand with Palestine and its people." And Lukas Graham wrote, "Money doesn't give you the right to own the conversation. Nobody's bank balance should decide who gets to speak or which suffering we're allowed to acknowledge."
This leaves Sheeran with no opening acts and no backing band because of his spinelessness. In his statement, Sheeran seems to resent that he is being asked to make a political statement. Consistently, since becoming a world famous multi-millionaire, Sheeran has tried to have his cake and eat it too, politically. In 2017, he endorsed the Labour Party. In 2018, after the British public voted to leave the European Union, Sheeran signed a public letter to then–prime minister Theresa May calling for a second vote. In interviews about these actions, he tried to step back from them. "I'm not Mr. Political," he said, and "I don't get involved in politics." As Ms. Rachel said on Instagram, "Ed Sheeran is making a political statement to his fans when he does a concert to support Ukraine, but considers Palestine too dangerous and political."
The problem with having no spine is that it's pretty easy to get twisted up into a pretzel over something that really has a simple solution. What's so embarrassing about this situation for Sheeran is that he did not even need to take a firm stance on the genocide in Palestine. The statement for Sheeran could have been so much simpler than that: American Billionaires should not get to decide who opens a tour. Ed Sheeran is richer than almost all of the creative people in the world. He is the one percent of the arts. But to Robert Kraft, who is a billionaire, Ed Sheeran is the little ginger he can hire to play at his wedding to a much younger woman Sheeran was given a chance to stand up for the rights of artists to choose what they do on stage, and he balked.
It's all the more embarrassing because the people without as much power and with nowhere close to as many guaranteed future opportunities did not balk. Sheeran himself gained a lot of fame and opportunity as an opening act for Taylor Swift's Red Tour. It was not so long ago that, for him, that was the opportunity of a lifetime. He should understand how much his opening acts are willing to lose in choosing to stand up for themselves. Instead, he's wimped out, rolled over at the feet of rich guys who view him as beneath them.
This is a play we've seen unfold over and over in the last few years. The people with the authority and security to defend the have-nots choose instead to bow to power. Students at Columbia University protested while tenured professors ducked. More freelance writers signed petitions against injustice than high-paid columnists. Those with the most security are also the most cowardly when presented with the opportunity to be brave. Nobody was expecting Sheeran to start wearing a keffiyeh while playing his CVS music live, but at the very least he could have acted like he had a say in his own tour.
Correction (2:00 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article stated that Robert Kraft's wife was 27 years old. She is 52.
