Bono has shared that Ed Sheeran didn’t want to “get into politics” when he collaborated with U2 on their 2026 single ‘Yours Eternally’.
The ‘Shape Of You’ singer has been at the centre of controversy recently, after Macklemore was dropped as a support act for his ‘Loop’ tour after making an on-stage speech, calling for a “free Palestine”.
Gillette Stadium owner and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft said he found the speech “deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community”, while the likes of Pink and the Israeli American Council called for Macklemore’s removal.
Sheeran’s band and all of the other support acts – including Finneas and Aaron Rowe – subsequently dropped out of the tour, voicing their support for Macklemore, while Sheeran himself later returned to the stage in Philadelphia and apologised for “making mistakes”.
Around the time that Macklemore was booted from the tour, Sheeran spoke out about the situation, saying he was “not complicit” and “appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine” – seeing the “suffering and pain caused on both sides” as a “tragedy”.
“Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have [opinions], and it doesn’t mean I don’t care,” he shared. “Those who come to my shows do not expect a political forum… I choose to use my fame and platform to be a place of safety and sanctuary, to maintain diplomacy and keep conversations open, not closed.”
Now, Bono has revealed that Sheeran had a similar stance when he collaborated with U2 earlier this year on the song ‘Yours Eternally’.
The track was released as part of the band’s surprise EP ‘Days of Ash’, features Ukrainian artist-turned-soldier Taras Topalia, and is written from the perspective of a soldier in Ukraine amid the war with Russia.
“I would say with Ed and Macklemore that we shouldn’t personalise this, what’s going on,” Bono told in a recent interview. “Brian Eno said today that pop stars are like little fish in a large sea of huge forces and religion and politics… And so I don’t want to dwell on Ed and Macklemore and that incident.”
He then, however, went on to say that when they were working together on ‘Yours Eternally’, Sheeran said to him: “You’re not going to get me into politics, are you?’”
“I said, ‘This soldier who inspired us, he loved you Ed and you’ve worked on this song’,” Bono shared, before adding that Sheeran then told him: “Yeah, but I just want to keep my thing free.”
“You can’t be pushing people around,” Bono concluded, before drummer Larry Mullen Jr. agreed, sharing that “artists [can] choose whether they want to be involved, and they are entitled to choose whether they want to be involved or not… And it’s not our job to criticise that, no matter how we feel.”
“It is complicated,” he added, sharing that while U2 respect that everyone is entitled to their own stance, they draw the line at billionaires having the power to stifle free speech – seemingly alluding to how Robert Kraft was among those who contributed to Macklemore being kicked off the Ed Sheeran tour.
“We are absolutely clear about promoters or billionaire owners and the idea that they could have some influence on what you say or what you do on a stage,” he told the outlet. “We’ve talked about this, and [if] you applied that logic to U2, we would have been out of business on ‘Sunday, Bloody Sunday’.”
When U2 dropped ‘Yours Eternally’, they also shared a powerful documentary film to accompany it – directed by Ukrainian cinematographer and filmmaker Ilya Mikhaylus and capturing the daily lives of soldiers fighting on the frontlines of the war.
“For four years, Ukraine has been resisting Russia’s full-scale invasion, and the soldiers of the Khartiya Corps are among the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians defending their homeland,” shared Mikhaylus at the time.
“In this short film, and in the upcoming full-length documentary, we attempt to show the beating human heart of those incredible men and women, the struggles and sacrifices they are making everyday for the most sacred thing on this planet – freedom.”
‘Days Of Ash’ featured six tracks, and was described by Bono and co. as a response to current events, and dedicated to those fighting on the frontlines of freedom.
Sheeran has shared support for Ukraine previously, including responding to a Ukrainian band who made a plea for him to perform at benefit concert, and teaming up with them for a reworked version of ‘2Step’.
At the 2022 ‘Concert For Ukraine’, he performed alongside Camila Cabello – showcasing their collaboration ‘Bam Bam’ for the first time live.
Regarding the Ed Sheeran and Macklemore controversy, big names including Greta Thunberg, Massive Attack, Roger Waters, Dropkick Murphys frontman Ken Casey, Amelia Dimoldenberg and Hayley Williams have also responded to the row, and Billy Bragg said that he was “not impressed” by what he called the singer’s attempt to “deflect the current storm of criticism”.
Macklemore has since donated his entire $1million earnings from the tour to six organisations supporting Palestinians, while Kraft said Sheeran had asked him to match a $2million humanitarian contribution.
Elsewhere, Sheeran’s two shows at Robert Kraft’s Gillette Stadium were cancelled after “severe weather warnings”.