Not music to my ears

Sue Gregson,

I donated money last week to the Delaware Food Bank’s school backpack program during WSTW’s radiothon. As a result, I won two raffles: one for $100 in Rita’s Water Ice gift cards and another for 4 tickets to Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour concert at the Linc Saturday, September 19. Friends and family urged me to play the Powerball after my windfall with the raffles, but Ed Sheeran and Patriot’s owner Robert Kraft have me feeling decidedly unlucky.

Tour promoter Messina Touring Group dropped American rapper Macklemore, one of Sheeran’s opening acts, after Macklemore made pro-Palestine comments from the stage during an earlier tour stop. This came on the heels of Robert Kraft telling Sheeran and his promoters that they could not play at Massachusetts’ Gillette Stadium if Macklemore remained on the tour. Kraft also spoke to his fellow NFL team owners to get them to apply pressure if the tour was appearing in their venues.

The optics are bad regardless of your position on Palestine. This is a man with inordinate amounts of money using that wealth to silence an artist. It’s offensive to silence anyone for that matter but particularly artists who use their platforms to express their views. It’s something musicians have done since the beginning of time. And we ostensibly have free speech in this country.

Frankly I’m old, crotchety, and tired of millionaires, billionaires, and trillionaires pulling rank. Especially old ones who can’t get a massage without getting busted. Sheeran is pointing his finger at the tour promoters and said that he had a band and other acts to support as he tossed Macklemore under the tour bus, all the while insisting his fans didn’t come to his concerts to hear politics.

Less than a day after the announcement, however, Sheeran’s opening acts and backing band announced that they support Macklemore and left the tour, four days before the Philly show. Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga, the Danish band Lukas Graham, and Finneas posted on Instagram that they were leaving the tour.

Rowe and Lukas Graham would have covered for Macklemore on Sheeran’s remaining U.S. dates, while Beoga would have performed with Sheeran around the middle of each set. Finneas, who is Billie Eilish’s brother, was set to tour with Sheeran in South America. “Money doesn’t give you the right to own the conversation,” Lukas Graham posted on its Instagram account. Hear, hear!

I don’t know if the concert will be cancelled, but I think I’ll give my tickets to someone else. I’m a union gal and any replacement acts are essentially crossing a proverbial picket line. Also, I just can’t abide angry rich people trampling other people’s freedoms. Now where are those water ice gift cards?

Sue Gregson

Sue Gregson is a business writer and kids’ book author who used to work for the Delaware and Maryland state governments in the education, legislative, affordable housing, and community development arenas. She’s volunteered for federal, state, and local political campaigns for nearly 50 years. Sue is not growing old gracefully.

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