Rapper Macklemore cancels Dubai show to protest UAE role in Sudan war

DUBAI (Reuters) – American rapper Macklemore said he has cancelled his October show in Dubai in protest over the United Arab Emirates’ support for Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a warring party in the country’s civil war.

“The current situation in Sudan is urgent, horrific and it’s going largely unnoticed globally. I’m following the lead of Sudanese organizers and activists who are trying to be heard,” he wrote in an Instagram post on Saturday explaining his decision to cancel the Oct 4 concert.

“Until the UAE stops arming and funding the RSF I will not perform there.”

As the UAE’s glitzy political and tourism hub, Dubai frequently hosts international artists and sporting events. Macklemore’s decision to cancel an engagement because of the country’s politics is extremely rare.

Neither the UAE’s foreign ministry nor its global media office immediately responded to Reuters’ request for a response to Macklemore’s decision to cancel.

Sudan’s army has publicly criticised the UAE over its alleged support for the RSF, its rival in the war.

The UAE denies the allegations, though U.N. experts have said they are credible. The allegations surfaced in a fiery back and forth at the U.N. security council in June.

The war in Sudan began in April 2023 when competition between the army and the RSF, who had previously shared power after staging a coup, flared into open warfare.

Efforts in pursuit of a ceasefire, including talks ongoing in Switzerland, have not eased the fighting, and half of Sudan’s 50 million population lack food.

Macklemore, a Grammy-winning artist, said in his post that the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza prompted him to reconsider how he earns money and his ability to use his artistic platform for activism.

“If I take the money, while knowing it doesn’t sit right with my spirit, how am I any different than the politicians I’ve been actively protesting against?” he wrote, urging other artists scheduled to play in Dubai to reconsider.

Macklemore in May released Hind’s Hall, a high-profile protest anthem in solidarity with pro-Palestinian activists occupying university campuses in response to the war in Gaza.

(Reporting by Andrew Mills; Editing by Bernadette Baum)