NewsBite

‘I’ll go harder’: Macklemore on NRL grand final row

Frances Abbott again counters her dad’s public views on same-sex marriage, backing Macklemore’s gay anthem at the grand final.

Rachel Baxendale and Olivia Caisley
9 min read
8:33AMSeptember 28, 2017.
Updated 8:40PMSeptember 28, 2017
Print
American musician Macklemore, right, with his producer Ryan Lewis. Picture: AP
American musician Macklemore, right, with his producer Ryan Lewis. Picture: AP

Frances Abbott has again countered her father’s public views on same-sex marriage, this time posting her approval of the gay anthem to be performed by Macklemore at Sunday’s NRL grand final - a song Tony Abbott says has “politicised” the game.

Yesterday, Mr Abbott used social media to voice his displeasure at news Macklemore would be joined by Mary Lambert for a performance of Same Love prior to kick-off at ANZ Stadium, where the Melbourne Storm and North Queensland Cowboys will meet in the title decider.

“Footy fans shouldn’t be subjected to a politicised grand final. Sport is sport!” he wrote.

Frances Abbott in the Yes campaign ad.
Frances Abbott in the Yes campaign ad.

Macklemore responded by saying he will ignore criticism from “angry, old, white dudes” and “go harder” when singing Same Love.

Ms Abbott, a fitness blogger, posted a clip of Same Love on her Instagram account this afternoon, urging the US singer to “go harder”.

“I still remember the first time I heard this song,” Ms Abbott posted.

“I was sitting in my car, about to get out to go to work... but stopped and sat and listened.

“And that same day I went and bought the album and kept it in my car and listened to it over and over and over again.

“I can’t think of a better song for all the hundreds of thousands of people to listen to on Saturday ... This is what we need right now. Go harder @macklemore.”

Ms Abbott included the hashtags #stillnotinterestedinpolitics, #justsaying, #loveislove, #lovewillwin, #voteyes, #itstime, #postalvote, #getaroundit, #marriageequality and #samelove.

The post comes after Ms Abbott fronted a Yes campaign advertisement earlier this week, saying she is voting Yes in the same-sex marriage postal survey because she hopes to attend the wedding of her Aunt Christine Forster and Ms Forster’s partner Virginia Edwards.

Her former PM father said that while he disagreed with her view, he and wife Margie had raised their daughters to be strong, independent women and he respected her right to express her opinion.

Macklemore controversy

International recording artist Macklemore has responded to controversy over his performance at the NRL grand final, saying he will ignore criticism from “angry, old, white dudes” and “go harder” when singing Same Love.

The US rapper became embroiled in Australia’s divisive same-sex marriage debate when it was revealed he planned to perform his hit song about marriage equality as part of his grand final set on Sunday.

Ahead of flying out to Sydney, Macklemore addressed the issue when interviewed by US radio show The Cruz Show.

“I’m actually going out to Australia to perform at kind of the Super Bowl of their rugby league,” the rapper said.

“And it’s interesting actually cause I’m gonna play Same Love and they’re going through trying to legalise same-sex marriage in Australia.

“So I’m getting a lot of tweets from angry old white dudes in Australia. Today I think there is a petition to ban me from playing.

“It’s interesting times in Australia and I’m heading on a flight over there later tonight.”

The interviewer then says Macklemore needs to “go harder” in response to the criticism.

“I’m gonna go harder,” he said.

Bernardi doesn’t support ban

Australian Conservatives leader Cory Bernardi said Macklemore had some good songs, and although Same Love doesn’t “sit well” with him politically, he doesn’t support a ban.

“Pink, who’s one of my favourite artists, I think she’s a wonderfully talented singer, released a song condemning George Bush, and I didn’t much like that at the time either, but I didn’t think it should be banned from radio,” Senator Bernardi told Sky News.

“Macklemore has got some good songs. He’s got one of them which made the top ten which doesn’t sit well with me politically, but I’m not sure this was meant to be a political statement, I think it was meant to be more about just entertainment.

“He’s had a few mega big hits and I’ll enjoy three of the four of them.”

Senator Bernardi said he could understand why some people were sensitive about the song.

“They just think that sometimes the world is working against them, and I feel like that too when I look at some of the coverage on the ABC and the commercial networks in regard to this marriage debate,” he said.

“I see the AFL carrying on and the NRL and others and it’s like you just see that they are doing everything they can to support a cause.

“I’m choosing not to think that’s the case in this instance but I can understand perfectly why some people are concerned about it, but I’ll just enjoy the music and I’ll probably enjoy the game too, after the Crows win of course tomorrow.”

Dutton unhappy

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said today people didn’t want political messages “jammed down their throat” at the footy, and he hadn’t heard of Macklemore either.

“It might be something the kids have on in the back of the car with the headphones on, but not something I’m familiar with I’m sorry, but when I take my kids to the footy I want them to be able to watch the footy,” Mr Dutton told 2GB.

“I don’t want some political message jammed down their throat, and I think frankly that’s how most Australians thinks, so these cute political messages that you get from companies now, I think whether it’s the NRL or Qantas or anything else, I think they’re worried that if they’re not acting politically correct that somehow they’ll get a volley of abuse on Twitter or Facebook.

“Please, get a backbone and stand up to some of this political correctness, and my kids love the footy. I want to take my boys to watch the footy and I don’t want the betting ads jammed down their throat, I don’t want the gay marriage message jammed down their throat at the football.

“Let’s enjoy the finals time of year without this sort of politically correct nonsense taking place.”

Treasurer Scott Morrison had a more succinct view.

“I’m a fan of the (Cronulla) Sharks, I’m a fan of the footy, and I think that people want to go to the footy on Sunday and watch footy,” he said.

However, Attorney-General George Brandis hit back at his colleagues’ criticism.

“For Mr Abbott and anyone else to say that it should be banned I think is a bizarre thing to say. I thought Mr Abbott believed in freedom of speech,” Mr Brandis told ABC TV today.

Hanson suggests ‘Johnny Farnham’

Meanwhile, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said she didn’t know who Macklemore was, but thought his planned appearance was “absolutely ridiculous”, calling for Australian artists such as John Farnham or Daryl Braithwaite to appear instead.

“I think people have had up to here with the same-sex marriage issue,” Senator Hanson told the Seven Network today.

“We have so many other great artists in this country that we could actually put up there. Why do we bring in someone from overseas and a lot of his songs I have heard, you would not want to play them because of the lyrics. Why we have got him, who knows? I will not be going or listening to him.”

Senator Hanson suggested an Australian artist would be preferable. “Put Johnny Farnham up there,” she said. She agreed Daryl Braithwaite could also be a contender.

“Get these people out there. Don’t bring whoever up from overseas, I would not have a clue who they are. Put an Aussie up there for the grand final.”

Watch the video for Same Love below

Abbott comments ‘bizarre’

Labor frontbencher Nick Champion described Mr Abbott’s comments as “bizarre”, accusing him of calling for a “Taliban-style” ban on the song.

“We’ve got this $122m boondoggle the government’s running and now we see the government divided between Tony Abbott and the more rational members of the executive pointing out that you can’t support free speech in one breath and then want to ban a song or a rap music artist on the other,” Mr Champion told Sky News.

“I mean it’s kind of bizarre that we’ve got to this place in Australia. It’s a free country, people are free to perform their music as they want. The NRL’s free to contract music artists to do it. So it’s strange that we’ve ended up in this sort of Taliban-style, ‘should we ban a song or a lyric or an artist?’”

Victorian Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie said everyone should be making allowances for freedom of speech and conducting a respectful debate around the question of same-sex marriage.

She said Australia had a great tradition of not politicising sport, but believed the AFL had got the balance right between advocating for inclusion and opposing sexism, racism and homophobia, and actively playing a part in the same-sex marriage debate.

“I look at the AFL grand final. Yes, they chose to put up same-sex marriage paraphernalia in the lead-up to grand final week, and in response to fans have taken it down because at the end of the day, sport is sport,” Senator McKenzie told Sky News.

“I think it’s up to organisations to take a leadership role around how they choose to pursue their inclusive practice, so I think the AFL has taken a sound perspective I think in terms of saying ‘yes, we’re inclusive around racism, sexism and homophobia, but we’re not going to actually participate as an organisation in the same-sex marriage debate’, and I think that’s the appropriate role to take. People are absolutely sick of it.”

Senator McKenzie said Macklemore’s song, Same Love, was in fact about calling out homophobia in hip-hop and rap, having been the No.1 hit in Australia in 2013, and was not making a statement about the same-sex marriage debate.

“I don’t see sport’s role in inclusive behaviour being challenged by including a song like Same Love, because the song is about homophobia, it’s not about same-sex marriage,” she said.

NRL defends choice

NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg has already thrown the code’s support behind the Yes vote and a spokesman for the game’s governing body yesterday said they would not be dictating to Macklemore over his choice of songs.

“We have hired Macklemore because he is a world-class artist and we’re expecting him to sing his greatest hits,” the spokesman said. “His performance is about entertainment, not politics.”

Same Love was a worldwide hit for Macklemore and Ryan Lewis — Lambert also sang vocals — in 2012, reaching No 1 on the Australian charts.

The song talks about the issues of gay and lesbian rights. Macklemore himself is not gay.

Former NRL player Tony Wall, who played 10 games for Western Suburbs in 1995, has started a petition to keep rainbow ideology out of the grand final.

Wall said his family would not be comfortable watching the grand final under the current circumstances and his stance has the backing of the Coalition for Marriage.

“Australian sports fans just want to watch the footy without being force-fed LGBTIQ mess­ages at the game,” Coalition for Marriage spokesman David Goodwin said.

“Sport is something that unites all Australians, so it is pretty ­bizarre that the NRL would choose to use its halftime entertainment to push a message which it knows millions of Australians disagree with.

“It’s one thing to let either side of the debate advertise during the finals, it’s a completely different thing to embed same-sex marriage advocacy as an official statement: whether it be halftime entertainment in the form of an LGBTIQ ‘anthem,’ the changing of logos or otherwise.

“They need to focus on being a game for Australian families, not a PC lecture theatre.

‘‘I’ll be signing Tony Wall’s petition to ask Todd Greenberg to let people wear their team colours, and wave their team’s flag — and not the rainbow one — this weekend.

‘‘I reckon other Australian sports fans should do the same.

“Not everything needs to be about same-sex marriage,” he concluded.

Additional reporting: Brent Read

Add your comment to this story

To join the conversation, please Don't have an account? Register

Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout

More related stories

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/abbott-up-in-arms-over-gay-anthem-for-nrl-grand-final/news-story/2a9d4f149f719b5ef4feefabd90ed79d