Ed Sheeran's four supporting acts for his US tour quit on Wednesday after the singer dropped rapper Macklemore from the lineup, The Telegraph reported.
According to the report, Irish folk band Beoga, one of the acts, claimed "Zionist lobbies" had silenced Macklemore, saying that speech is important "as a means of progressing the plight of the Palestinian people.”
The other three artists who quit the tour include Finneas, Lukas Graham, and Aaron Rowe, according to The Telegraph. Finneas, who is pop star Billie Eilish's brother, said that “artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed.”
The report cited Rowe as accusing Israel of "genocide," citing his Irish status as meaning he and his people "know all too well about genocide, forced famine and violent occupation."
He added that he could not "allow billionaires to use their positions of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up against Israeli genocide.”
AOC boycotts Sheeran, accuses Robert Kraft of censorship on Gaza 'genocide'
Earlier on Wednesday, US Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) said she is boycotting Sheeran over the Macklemore controversy, accusing pro-Israel philanthropist Robert Kraft of attempting to censor speech on "the genocide in Gaza."
"When you see what Robert Kraft did, to line up all of the stadiums, to censor speech in that one specific way... it doesn't stop there," she said in an interview with TMZ.
AOC added that she doesn't know what Sheeran's responsibility is in the controversy, but says the "right thing to do is to speak out about it."
"At what point does it stop?" asked AOC. "I have a huge amount of empathy for he situation... but we need to be clear about how dangerous pof a precedent this is."