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Never known to shy away from political discourse, U2 have weighed in on the furore which surrounded Macklemore being kicked off an Ed Sheeran tour in September.
The Thrift Shop rapper was forced off a US stadium tour with Sheeran following pressure from venue owners, who took exception to pro-Palestine speeches he was making onstage.
The removal incited widespread online backlash, with all of Sheeran’s other support acts and even his backing band dropping off the lineup in solidarity.
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Talking to BBC News, U2 guitarist The Edge sees both sides of the controversy, supporting Macklemore while also defending Sheeran.
“We totally support Macklemore’s right as an artist to say what he wanted to say,” he says. “I don’t think Ed should be vilified. He was in a very difficult situation. But I commend the other young artists who decided to leave [his] tour. They were sticking up for an artist’s right to free speech, and I think that’s the issue above anything else.”
The guitarist likens Macklemore’s situation to one U2 faced in 1998, when the Irish rockers taunted Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet during a televised concert in Santiago: “It would have been way smarter and better for us to shut up. But it was artistically necessary, and we just said, ‘We can’t not do this.’”
Drummer Larry Mullen Jr echoes The Edge’s sentiments, adding: “Artists can choose whether they want to be politically active or not. It’s a human right. But we as a band will fight for the right to speak your mind as long as it doesn’t incite violence.
“And even if we disagree with it or don’t like it, nobody has a right – no billionaire, no promoter, no owner has the right to censor anybody. Um, but they will definitely not be censoring us ever.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the band discuss their collaboration with late country-pop megastar Dolly Parton on the new track Torn, taken from last week’s album Carnaval de Luz. Frontman Bono reveals that he sent the 9 To 5 singer a set of bagpipes for her birthday, which got her to listen to some demos.
“We had some folk songs we were playing, there was one called Lifelong, and I remember her saying, ‘You know, that’s a little too Irish for me,’” he remembers. “So she said, ‘Look, I’ve started a song called Torn. You can take it where you want, and I might like where you take it.’ And she did.”
Parton’s Torn vocals were tracked in June, three months before she died at the age of 80 following a brief cancer battle. The song was Parton’s last-ever recording.
Carnaval de Luz, U2’s first studio album of all-original material since 2017, is out on Friday. The band will embark on their humbly-titled The Greatest Show On Earth world tour in February. Central and South American and European dates have been confirmed, with North American shows set to be announced soon. See below for the itinerary.
U2 2027 tour dates:
- Feb 23: Mexico City Estadio GNP Seguros, Mexico
- Feb 26: Mexico City Estadio GNP Seguros, Mexico
- Mar 10: São Paulo Estádio MorumBIS, Brazil
- Mar 12: São Paulo Estádio MorumBIS, Brazil
- Mar 23: Buenos Aires Estadio River Plate, Argentina
- Mar 25: Buenos Aires Estadio River Plate, Argentina
- Apr 26: Stockholm Strawberry Arena, Sweden
- Apr 28: Stockholm Strawberry Arena, Sweden
- May 05: Paris Stade de France, France
- May 08: Paris Stade de France, France
- May 27: Lisbon Estadio da Luz, Portugal
- Jun 05: Amsterdam Johan Cruijff Arena, Netherlands
- Jun 06: Amsterdam Johan Cruijff Arena, Netherlands
- Jun 18: London Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, UK
- Jun 19: London Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, UK
- Jun 30: Berlin Olympiastadion, Germany
- Jul 05: Milan Stadio San Siro, Italy
- Jul 06: Milan Stadio San Siro, Italy
