English singer Paloma Faith told Channel 4 on Friday that she tells her children “Free Palestine” before bed every night, during an interview in which she discussed the conflict between English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran and American rapper Macklemore.
After Macklemore announced the would no longer appear on the tour, Sheeran said on Instagram that the promoter, not he, made the decision. Hours later, three other supporting acts, Aaron Rowe, Beoga, and Finneas, announced they would leave the tour.
Sheeran has said he has been reluctant to comment on the conflict because his audience includes “young people, often children, of all backgrounds.”
Asked about Sheeran's remarks, Faith said she disagreed with the singer and criticized him for not speaking out about Gaza during the tour.
“When he said that, it really upset me because there are so many children in Palestine who are faced with unimaginable things and shouldn’t be,” Faith said. “I say free Palestine to my children every night. I think children should be exposed to politics.”
Faith, who has three children aged nine, six, and six months, also criticized Sheeran’s use of the word “conflict” to describe the war in Gaza, saying she believed the wording should have been considered more carefully.
“I don’t like the word conflict because I think it’s an eradication,” she said. “So the wording of the statement should have probably been monitored better.”
Paloma Faith argues celebrities must address political issues
Speaking more broadly about the controversy surrounding Macklemore’s removal, Faith argued that major artists cannot remain detached from political issues.
“I’m really glad I’m not Ed Sheeran right now because it’s actually astounding and probably quite badly handled on the part of everyone who advises him, the whole team,” she said, according to The Telegraph.
“Ed Sheeran’s learning the hard way that it’s quite impossible to be at that kind of level and think you can stay out of politics because being apolitical is a political act in itself,” Faith added. “You cannot remain apolitical when people are seeing the images day-to-day.”
Faith defends Macklemore and backs tour departures
Faith, a longtime pro-Palestinian activist, said Sheeran would face practical challenges in stepping away from the tour but argued that doing so would be the “right thing to do” ideologically. She called Macklemore and the other supporting acts who left the tour “heroic” and said his comments were not “inflammatory.”
Faith also defended Macklemore after Robert Kraft accused the rapper of having a “broader history of anti-Semitic rhetoric” over past controversial imagery. She said she believed Macklemore when he denied antisemitism, arguing that such accusations can silence people who advocate for Palestinian rights.