In a long Instagram statement, Sheeran said the promoter and venues made the final decision, that he had spent the week trying to keep Macklemore on the tour, and that he does not use his platform for politics. He said he respects Macklemore while declining to state a public position on the war.
Why we used this label
Relative to Macklemore's MetLife speech and his removal from the tour, Sheeran combines two materially different positions rather than resolving them. He defends Macklemore's freedom to make the speech, saying he agreed that support acts play a setlist of their choosing, that he respects Macklemore as an artist, and that he spent the week speaking with venue owners including Robert Kraft to try to keep him on the tour. At the same time he declines to endorse the message, stating that he does not use his professional platform for politics and that he chooses not to speak publicly on the conflict, and he accepts the outcome rather than contesting it further, citing his obligations to fans and crew. Neither element cancels the other, which is what mixed_or_conditional records. The closest competing label is explicitly_declines, which loses because Sheeran does not merely refuse to address the matter: he makes substantive attributable statements about Macklemore's setlist freedom and about his own efforts to keep him on the tour. A reading that this is not a position event also loses, because his defence of the setlist agreement and his stated respect for Macklemore's purpose are evaluations of the conduct under scrutiny, not only of his own role.
