Artists and Illustrators Throw Ed Sheeran for a Loop
Protest artworks and memes scrutinize Sheeran's inability to speak out against the genocide after he axed Macklemore from his Loop Tour over pro-Palestine comments.
Ed Sheeran is getting lambasted in a flurry of online protest art and memes after the Irish pop star axed rapper Macklemore from his Loop Tour for making pro-Palestine comments.
"Who knew his music would be the second worst thing about him," wrote the Chicago cartoonist Jesse Duquette, who also posted an incisive illustration imagining Sheeran casting new bandmates in 1933.
While opening Sheeran's show at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium earlier this month, Macklemore protested Israel's genocide in Gaza and sang a number dedicated to Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by Israeli forces in 2024. A flurry of pro-Israel protesters descended upon the rapper, including singer Pink, who reposted an Instagram photo accusing Macklemore of turning "a mainstream event into a political nightmare against the Jewish state."
In an Instagram statement, Macklemore explained that Sheeran bent his knee to billionaire Robert Kraft, whose company owns the Boston stadium where the tour will perform. Sheeran maintained on Instagram that Macklemore's coming off the tour was not his decision, but Kraft's and the promoters', though many online have criticized his decision not to intervene.
"His typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way that it never had been before," Macklemore's statement read. "He told me that the words 'Free Palestine' and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with."
The debacle has offered bountiful fodder for artists online, who have scrutinized Sheeran's inability to speak out against the genocide in a litany of memes and protest art across social media.
Some artists online portray Sheeran getting cozy with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and political cartoonist Benjamin Slyngstad depicts the musician serenading a missile with "Shape of You" (2017). Others have taken Sheeran's song titles and lyrics and remixed them into visual diss tracks. “Shape of You? Not in my queue,” quipped the Palestinian illustrator @zeindee.
Often depicted with his signature curtain of striking red hair, which he has since chopped off, the artist has been dragged as a complicit bystander in Israel's atrocities.
Left: A cool cat wearing a keffiyeh knows what song to skip. (image courtesy @zeindee); right: an illustration depicts Aaron Pierre telling Ed Sheeran to "speak up." (image courtesy @kazvaremadeit)
Hours after Sheeran dropped Macklemore from the Loop Tour, all four remaining acts sent the musician for another loop. Sheeran's Irish backing band Beoga, singer and songwriter Finneas O'Connell, Danish band Lukas Graham, and Irish act Aaron Rowe all quit the show in solidarity with Palestine and Macklemore.
