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DUBLIN: US rapper Macklemore on Monday launched his new \u201cFree Palestine Tour\u201d in Dublin after being dropped as a supporting act by British pop star Ed Sheeran over pro-Palestinian comments.<\/p>\n
Standing in lines outside the venue for the first show in the Irish capital, which promoters said had sold out, excited fans praised the 43-year-old\u2019s stance.<\/p>\n
\u201cMacklemore\u2019s support for Palestine is huge. He\u2019s stood up and he\u2019s put himself on the line instead of taking the easy way out,\u201d said Michael Keating, a 31-year-old who works in insurance, told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s risking his popularity, his future, his family\u2019s future \u2014 everything just for peace. And it is very important.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cThrift Shop\u201d star was removed from Sheeran\u2019s US tour after shouting \u201cFree Palestine!\u201d on stage and telling Palestinians they were \u201cnot forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheeran has said the decision to drop Macklemore was made by tour promoters, not him \u2014 provoking outrage among musicians and pro-Palestinian activists.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe USA is supposed to be the country of free speech and instead people are being shut down. (Sheeran) should have stood up for what Macklemore was doing,\u201d said Grainne Healy, a 60-year-old retiree who had come to the Dublin concert with a former schoolfriend.<\/p>\n
Four other supporting artists, including American singer Finneas, also pulled out of Sheeran\u2019s tour in solidarity with Macklemore and Sheeran later broke his silence on the situation in Gaza at a concert in Philadelphia, calling it \u201cunjustifiable and disproportionate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last month Macklemore announced his Free Palestine Tour, with shows in London and Paris in late October and US dates also planned, saying all proceeds would benefit pro-Palestinian organizations.<\/p>\n
Outside Dublin\u2019s 3Arena, traders were selling fans half-Irish half-Palestinian flags, Free Palestine bucket hats and Palestinian-style keffiyeh scarves.<\/p>\n
\u201cEver since (Macklemore) started talking about Palestine, it makes us like him even more,\u201d said one fan, Freya Dorrity, an 18-year-old student.<\/p>\n
Maria Liddy, a 40-year-old in a red-and-white Palestinian-style keffiyeh scarf, said she was there \u201cto show solidarity\u201d with the people of Palestine, adding that \u201cartists should never be censored in any capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n