Macklemore & Friends in Dublin: Kneecap and Hozier join strong response to Ed Sheeran saga

Macklemore & Friends Free Palestine Tour

Six weeks on from being unceremoniously dismissed as Ed Sheeran’s support act, Macklemore descended on Dublin for night one of his consequent Free Palestine tour.

The fallout has positioned the US rapper, whose real name is Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, at the epicentre of high-profile advocacy for Palestine.

In Ireland, where more than 2,500 artists have signed a pledge to boycott Israel, his actions do not seem out of place, but that should not underplay their significance.

There is little brash or provocative about Macklemore. Of the musicians who have staked their careers on vociferous support for the Palestinian cause (think Kneecap, Bob Vylan), his work may be the most sanitised; the two sides of his songwriting coin are silly goofball and earnest social commentator, a combination befitting both white rap and the digital age.

In some ways, that is what makes him the perfect poster boy for the movement. Few members of Kneecap’s audience need to be persuaded that Israel is committing a genocide in Palestine, but millennials attending a gig for the guy who sings Can’t Hold Us might. The percentage probably increases further for a Sheeran concert.

Of course, there was no contention among the Dublin crowd on Monday, which was awash with Palestine flags and keffiyehs, but the gig will have its international echoes.

Macklemore told the 3Arena his tour’s title contained two words that “are so threatening to some people”. Somehow, he said, they have “become more divisive than the suffering that made them necessary”.

So, amid the malaise of apolitical celebrity in a hyper-politicised world, how do you square a big artist showing an admirable social conscience while performing corny music? For a start, you can create a benefit gig so stacked with contributors that the headliner doesn’t appear until after 10pm.

Kneecap were indeed among them, as was Hozier, whose moving performance of The Prayer of Sheil, a song written by Drogheda man John Sheil in the 19th century, was one of the evening’s highlights.

Kneecap were their usual frenetic selves, choreographing mosh pits and stalking the stage against a rich visual backdrop.

The screen was used to good effect throughout, from pre-gig advertisements for pro-Palestinian organisations to footage of the country itself, both beautiful and harrowing.

It broadcast messages from the likes of Mark Ruffalo, Cynthia Nixon and Julian Casablancas, as well as a performance from the Al Hurriyah Gazan children’s choir.

Beoga, one of the Irish acts that quit Sheeran’s tour in solidarity with Macklemore, appeared earlier in the night. The group’s bodhrán player, Eamon Murray, took aim at Alan Shatter and Graham Linehan, who, he claimed, had been “very upset” with the band’s appearance on The Late Late Show last Friday.

[ Beoga on quitting Ed Sheeran’s tour: ‘You have to hold your friends accountable’Opens in new window ]

Palestinian pop artist Lina Makhoul was the first performer, and her first song consisted entirely of non-lexical vocables. On a night of many speeches, the wordless dirge was poignant. There were cameos too from Dead Prez and DJ Habibeats.

As a side note, the stage crew proved impressively capable of negotiating logistics, calmly rejigging the set-up every few minutes for new performers.

And so, in the context of all that had come before him, Macklemore brought a close to the night, taking time to gather himself between songs and meet the moment. He debuted a brand new song, Where is Our Love?, which follows the lead of his 2024 effort Hind’s Hall and provides further evidence of his support for Palestine.

There can be no doubting the courage of Macklemore’s convictions, and musically his views seem to be leading him somewhere more interesting. It is hard to imagine a more emphatic response to the Sheeran saga than this.