Ed Sheeran loses 200,000 Instagram followers amid Palestine backlash as Macklemore gains over 1.6million

Ed Sheeran has lost over 200,000 Instagram followers amid the backlash over Macklemore being dropped from his tour. Earlier this week, the ‘Thrift Shop’ rapper made headlines over his impassioned “free Palestine” speech made while opening for Sheeran at New Jersey’s Gillette Stadium. The speech prompted calls for Macklemore’s removal from figures like Pink and the Israeli American Council. Macklemore was then announced to have been dropped from the tour, with Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft later confirming that he found Macklemore’s speech “deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community”, resulting in his dismissal. Sheeran later spoke out about the situation, saying he was “not complicit” and that he was “appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine” and sees the “suffering and pain caused on both sides” as a “tragedy”. In the day since Macklemore announced that he had been dropped from Sheeran’s tour, Sheeran lost 149,636 followers on Instagram, according to data from social media analytics firm Social Blade. He later lost a further 50,000, bringing his count to 47.3 million. During the same 24-hour period, Macklemore gained 750,098 followers on Instagram. Since then, he’s gained a further 850,000, bringing him to more than 8.4 million followers on the platform. All of Ed Sheeran’s support acts and backing band dropped out the ‘Loop’ tour. FINNEAS, Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe and Beoga all made statements supporting Macklemore, with Rowe writing: “I cannot stand by and allow billionaires to use their position of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up against Israeli genocide”.Recommended They have all also amassed more followers, with FINNEAS gaining 96,163 more in the 24 hours after the statement. Beoga, who was serving as Sheeran’s touring band, gained 86,548, while Rowe, who was the first to drop out, has grown his following by 73 per cent, with more than 132,000 people now following him. Meanwhile, recent Sheeran support acts BIIRD and Myles Smith also came out in support of the rapper. Irish trad-folk band BIIRD wrote that “we stand unequivocally behind every word [Macklemore] said,” while Smith said that “what Palestinians are enduring is devastating and impossible to look away from. No child, no family, no innocent person should have to live under bombing, displacement, hunger, grief or fear.” Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters waded into the debate to call Sheeran a “little prick” while praising Macklemore for doing “the right thing”, and Massive Attack also spoke on the controversy: “’Neutrality’ in the face of the slaughter of more than 20,000 children can never be neutrality”. Sheeran is yet to respond to his acts pulling out and these comments. Elsewhere, Macklemore donated his entire $1million earnings from the tour to Palestinians – with Kraft matching with $2million to “aid in the region”.