U2 and Ed Sheeran collaborated earlier this year on the song “Yours Eternally” off the band’s “Days of Ash” EP, which dropped in February. Bono told Rolling Stone UK in a new interview that Sheeran expressed his resistance to U2 about doing such a politically-minded song. “Yours Eternally” features Ukrainian musician Taras Topolia, and the lyrics take the perspective of a Ukrainian soldier writing to his friends back home amid the country’s ongoing war with Russia.
“When we did ‘Yours Eternally,’ [Ed] was saying, ‘You’re not going to get me into politics, are you?’” Bono revealed. “And I said, ‘This soldier who inspired us, he loved you Ed and you’ve worked on this song.’ [He responded], ‘Yeah, but I just want to keep my thing free.’”
Bono is currently touting U2’s upcoming album “Carnaval de Luz,” set to drop Nov. 13. The frontman was asked about the band’s Ed Sheeran collaboration in the wake of the backlash Sheeran received over Macklemore dropping out of his U.S. tour last month. The rapper exited Sheeran’s tour after stadium owners such as Robert Kraft banned him from performing due to the “Free Palestine” speeches he made while opening for Sheeran at two concerts at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
After Macklemore was dropped from the tour, Sheeran posted a statement that ignited widespread backlash against him as he explained why, unlike Macklemore, he does not speak out on political issues.
“Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care. Nor does it mean I don’t support causes in my own, personal way,” Sheeran wrote on Instagram. “There is a reason I do not use my professional platform for politics – my audience includes young people, often children, of all backgrounds. Those who come to my shows do not expect a political forum. I respect Macklemore’s strength of purpose to stand up and shout for what he believes. However, there is room for multiple approaches to the same end: peace. I choose to use my fame and platform to be a place of safety and sanctuary, to maintain diplomacy and keep conversations open, not closed. If we only focus on shouting the loudest, nothing will ever change. There are different approaches to being an advocate for change.”
However, Sheeran changed his tune at his Sept. 19 concert, which marked his first show since Macklemore’s tour departure. The singer told the crowd after receiving backlash for staying silent that “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 Oct. 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable, and disproportionate,” Sheeran said. “Our hearts can be broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians’ lives, children’s lives and the systemic injustice we’re seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked.”
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Asked about the situation by Rolling Stone UK, Bono recalled Sheeran not wanting to get into politics when they collaborated but also added: “I would say with Ed and Macklemore that we shouldn’t personalise this, what’s going on. Brian Eno said today that pop stars are like little fish in a large sea of huge forces and religion and politics. And so I don’t want to dwell on Ed and Macklemore and that incident.”
Bono later added that U2 aligns more with Macklemore as the band has never been one to shy away from politics in their music and performances.
“Even before you got to our performance of ‘Pride (In the Name of Love)’ in Arizona when we were campaigning for Martin Luther King Day and there was a governor at that time, [Evan] Mecham, who was resisting, and we were told we weren’t welcome there. We’ve been getting into this trouble,” Bono said. “It’s what we do and we’re happy to do that, but we’re also happy to recognise if there’s other people don’t want to get into that kind of fight. I think what Eno was saying is you have to persuade people by reason. You can’t try to force people into a position.”
Since being dropped from Sheeran’s tour, Macklemore has announced the “Free Palestine” tour set for three shows this month in Dublin (Oct. 26), Paris (Oct. 29) and London (Oct. 30). All proceeds from the tour are being donated to charities providing aid to Palestinians in Gaza. Macklemore recently announced all three shows have sold out.
From Variety US