Macklemore to Go “Harder” in Response to NRL Grand Final "Same Love" Controversy

Macklemore, a dude not known for saying the right thing at the right time, has taken the diplomatic route in response to a petition aiming to keep him from the NRL Grand Final.

Some context:

It was revealed this week that Macklemore would be performing his gay rights anthem “Same Love” during the NRL Grand Final’s halftime show on Sunday, in response to Australia's marriage equality postal survey.

This set Tony Abbott and a bunch of “angry old white dudes” (Macklemore’s words) right off.

Needless to say, Abbott’s claim that politics and sports shouldn’t mix was immediately met with a barrage of examples that suggested otherwise.

Sport is sport and it transcends politics, it's what you're afraid of pic.twitter.com/m6tGUsp5OP

— Mitch Jennings (@Mitch_Jenno) September 27, 2017

Nonetheless, a petition to “Take LGBTIQ politics out of the NRL” has gathered more than 9,000 signatures as of this writing.

Even Pauline Hanson chimed in, despite having not previously heard of Macklemore. Now, however, after listening to “a lot of his songs” (even “White Privilege II”?), she wants him outta there.

"We have so many other great artists in this country that we could actually put up there,” she argued.

“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?"

Smash cut to Macklemore, who was interviewed on Power 106 radio in the United States ahead of his NRL gig. Here's how he attempted to explain the outrage:

“I’m actually going out to Australia to perform at kind of the Super Bowl of their rugby league and it’s interesting actually because I’m playing ‘Same Love’ and they’re going through right now, trying to legalise same-sex marriage in Australia,” he said.

“So, I’m getting a lot of tweets from angry old white dudes in Australia. I think there's a petition today to ban me from playing. It’s interesting times in Australia.”

Macklemore’s highest profile performance of “Same Love”, at the 2014 Grammys, culminated in 33 same-sex couples getting married on stage. Who knows how he’ll bring the song to life at the NRL Grand Final?

All he’s promised, from that same interview, is that he’s gonna “go harder” in response to the hate.

"I'mma love," he added.

We've seen the culture wars do some awful things but 'force the left to endorse Macklemore' might be the worst among them.

— Colley (@JamColley) September 27, 2017

Photo: YouTube.com/Macklemore LLC