Same Love is exactly right for the NRL final

SAME Love is one of Macklemore’s biggest hits. It would be weird if he didn’t sing it at the NRL GF, writes Cameron Adams. Even if it annoys Tony Abbott.

HANG on a minute.

So free speech advocate Tony Abbott wants Macklemore banned from performing Same Love at the NRL Grand Final because it doesn’t align with his Flintstonian beliefs?

The man who says Australians don’t like being told what to do is telling someone else what to do.

And a politician who has been invited to countless sporting events (presumably on our dime) doesn’t want politics mixing with sports.

Didn’t see Tone complaining when Farnsey sang You’re the Voice (about political apathy) or Barnsey sang Khe Sanh (about post-war trauma) at recent grand finals. Or when Tom Jones sang Delilah — you know that old school ditty that comes with a bodycount?

Once again, Abbott is angry because something isn’t going his way. His way was freeze-framed somewhere around 1952 and no doubt has a sepia Sullivans-style look.

Macklemore, for readers who don’t know — and Alan Jones — is an American rapper who is white.

Same Love was a song Macklemore released back in 2012. It went on to sell over 300,000 copies, spend four weeks at No. 1 and even longer dominating commercial radio. It’s had over 170 million views on YouTube.

At the time it was the most popular song in Australia and there were no petitions, no angry tweets from politicians, no drama. Macklemore has even toured here (twice) playing the song in question to thousands of paying customers.

One of the 300,000 Australians who were moved by the song’s message — Frances Abbott, the yes-voting, open-minded daughter of old mate Tone.

“I can’t think of a better song for all the hundreds of thousands of people to listen to on Saturday,” Frances wrote on Instagram today. The game’s Sunday, but close enough.

“This is what we need right now. Go harder.” Go harder is a reference to Macklemore telling US radio, just before flying to Sydney, that he will indeed go harder given the backlash down under over Same Love. Shots fired!

Tony Abbott's daughter Frances disagrees with her dad on @macklemore it seems pic.twitter.com/RVea3JrFDc

— Annika Smethurst (@annikasmethurst) September 28, 2017

This week’s belated outrage is operating on a five year delay.

Abbott, naturally, jumped on-board a DIY petition to stop the song being played at the NRL Grand Final — an occasion where acts are paid handsomely to perform their biggest hits because nobody wants to hear 15 minutes of unfamiliar material.

Macklemore has had four No. 1 hits in Australia, Same Love is one of them, so it’s no huge shock it’s on the playlist alongside Thrift Shop and Downtown and his latest release Glorious.

Ahead of landing in Australia, Macklemore has watched the issue blow up on social media.

He’s spoken about it in America, just as Elton John and Sam Smith have shared with their millions of global followers that Australia is voting on the human rights of strangers.

Our politicians are now so beige the AFL and NRL are making more direct political statements than the people paid to lead the country.

Macklemore pointed out that “angry old white dudes” want Same Love banned.

Even before Same Love was announced as one of the songs Macklemore would be performing, Alan Jones took to Twitter to ponder who “Macklemore” (his quote marks, not ours) was and whether his fee was a wise allocation of funds.

To get younger viewers, it probably is.

Macklemore performs in New Zealand last year. (Pic: Fiona Goodall/Getty)

Abbott and Jones are now like the two angry old white dudes from the Muppet Show looking down on the modern world and moaning and groaning about change.

Except that the cranky puppet trolls Statler and Waldorf were actually funny, not groan-inducing.

Abbott may not like politics being in sport — but he probably doesn’t like his daughter contradicting him online and his sister voting yes so you can’t always get what you want.

Sport is the great leveller in society. Unlike people who listen to a certain radio show or support a certain political party who like to comfort-listen to things that align with their thoughts, sporting teams supporting diversity reflects on the diverse people in those teams and the diverse people who follow those teams.

It shouldn’t be a political issue, but seeing as that’s where we are then a five year old song about marriage equality is now political. That’s not Macklemore’s fault Mr Abbott, this is your mess.

Presumably the people blindly voting to get Same Love banned haven’t actually listened to it.

They should know that Mary Lambert, the (ready for it) proudly gay vocalist who sang the song’s chorus is joining Macklemore in Sydney for the Grand Final.

Same Love hit out at the word ‘gay’ being used as a negative (”that’s so gay”). Five years later, that’s gone the way of Zoolander and Wayne’s World quotes in pop culture.

However other lyrics are sadly still spot-on with what’s happening in Australia in 2017.

“The right-wing conservatives think it’s a decision and you can be cured with some treatment and religion.” Tick.

“God loves all his children is somehow forgotten, but we paraphrase a book written 35,000 years ago.” Tick.

“A world so hateful some would rather die than be who they are. A certificate on paper isn’t gonna solve it all but it’s a damn good place to start.” Tick

And that chorus “I can’t change, even if I tried, even if I wanted to.”

When did you choose to be straight Tony Abbott?

There’s now rival petitions to get Same Love to be the national anthem, Frances Abbott is doing PR for the song online and Same Love has returned to the iTunes Top 70, all thanks to Mr Abbott.

Cameron Adams is a News Corp national music writer.