Throughout his career, Ed Sheeran has cultivated his image as the nice, ordinary guy with a guitar.
But that image has taken a serious hit in recent days after the controversy surrounding rapper Macklemore, who was dropped from the tour after several companies that own the arenas where the tour will be held demanded it.
Ed Sheeran, one of the world's biggest artists, should have taken a stand for his fellow artist and friend, believes music journalist Jeffrey Ingold.
"He had a choice. He could have told the organizers that he wasn't going to play there unless all the artists were allowed to perform," he tells the BBC.
Greta Thunberg
Macklemore was dropped after, during his gigs as the opening act for Sheeran's concerts in New Jersey on September 4-5, shouting "Free Palestine" and performing his song "Hind's Hall", the lyrics of which describe Israel's war in Gaza as genocide.
Other activists, including Greta Thunberg, have also criticized Ed Sheeran on social media and other artists who were supposed to appear as support have dropped out of the tour, including Finneas and Danish Lukas Graham.
Although Ed Sheeran has been involved in issues and charity, the artist has rarely made political statements - in fact, he has carefully avoided them. But now he finds himself in the middle of a rarely seen storm and has been drawn into the heated debate surrounding Israel and Gaza.
Looked for solution
In a statement on social media, Ed Sheeran wrote on Tuesday that he had tried to find a solution to the conflict between Macklemore and the tour organizers and that he has his own political opinions, which he chooses to keep to himself. For a reason.
"My audience includes young people, often children, from diverse backgrounds. Those who come to my concerts do not expect a political forum," Sheeran writes, adding:
“There is room for different ways to achieve the same goal: peace.”
Jem Aswad, music editor at the trade magazine Variety, believes, unlike the critics, that Ed Sheeran's career will not be significantly affected.
"This is coming from people who don't like how he acted in this situation and I'm not convinced that many of them are Ed Sheeran fans," he told the BBC.
