Moral Maze - Can we separate pop from politics?
Download Can we separate pop from politics?
Ed Sheeran says he tries to keep politics off the stage.
But politics gate-crashed his stadium tour anyway -- when the American rapper Macklemore was removed as a support act for delivering a pro-Palestinian speech.
Now Sir Bob Geldof, the man behind Live Aid, says Ed Sheeran's preferred silence isn't political.
Fame, he says, is a currency, and artists get to choose how to spend it
Is he right? Can any artist, whether a musician, a writer, or a painter, stay out of politics? Or is silence itself a kind of political statement too?
This week’s Moral Maze: Can we separate pop from politics?
Presenter: William Crawley Panel: Andrew Copson, Ash Sarkar, Ella Whelan, Giles Fraser Witnesses: Tom Phelan, Daniel Rachel, Angela McRobbie, Nick Asbury Producer: Catherine Murray Editor: Chloe Walker
Published on Thursday, 24th September 2026.
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