NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The English band Gorillaz appeared to call out the decision to boot rapper Macklemore from Ed Sheeran’s tour over his call for a “Free Palestine” with a similar stunt during one of their shows last week.
While performing in Florida on Thursday, band frontman Damon Albarn held up a Palestinian flag and draped it over his shoulder while addressing the audience.
“Don’t forget this. Ever. Stand your position. Don’t ever be neutral,” Albarn said.
ROBERT KRAFT, GILLETTE STADIUM BOOT MACKLEMORE FROM ED SHEERAN TOUR OVER ‘FREE PALESTINE’ RANT
Fox News Digital reached out to Gorillaz and Sheeran for comment.
Gorillaz is one of several performers who have used the stage to promote anti-Israel causes since the Oct. 7 terror attacks. The band previously performed at the Together for Palestine concert in 2025 for Palestinian organizations.
During the Glastonbury Festival in 2024, Albarn asked the audience whether they supported Palestine.
“Three things, and you have to show me how you feel about them: Palestine. Are you pro-Palestine? Do you feel that’s an unfair war? Okay,” Albarn said.
Gorillaz’s stunt came after Macklemore was removed from Sheeran’s tour, causing several progressive figures to rally behind the rapper and criticize Sheeran, though Sheeran’s representatives have said he was not involved in the decision.
ED SHEERAN SAYS HE TRIED TO ‘BUILD A BRIDGE’ OVER MACKLEMORE TOUR SPOT BEFORE VENUES SAID NO
Macklemore has since doubled down on his activism and defended his efforts to shout “Free Palestine” at his show and perform his anti-Israel song “Hind’s Hall.”
“I’m not sure how to start this. So I’m going to speak from the heart and share the truth,” Macklemore wrote in a lengthy Instagram statement last week. “Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour. But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families.”
Sheeran addressed the controversy during his show on Saturday night.
ED SHEERAN FACES GROWING BACKLASH AS RADIO STATION BANS SONGS, PROTEST GROUPS RESPOND TO MACKLEMORE’S REMOVAL
“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’ve tried in my career to not be a political commentator of any kind because I want my music and shows to be about unity not division, about humanity not politics,” Sheeran said.
He continued, “But this is a humanitarian issue and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore. What happened in Israel at a… music festival on Oct. 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate.”
Read the full article here