Macklemore gay anthem Same Love tops Australian charts after homophobic censorship demands
Macklemore’s gay anthem Same Love has topped the Australian iTunes charts, after the country ex-PM Tony Abbott called for the song to be censored.
As Australia votes on equal marriage, controversy has erupted over plans for rapper Macklemore’s setlist to perform at the country’s National Rugby League Grand Final.
Politicians in the country have demanded Macklemore be banned from performing his 2013 gay anthem Same Love, with former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the de facto leader of the anti-gay marriage lobby, wading into the row to call for the song to be banned.
Meanwhile, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton claimed that an anti-gay marriage song should be played alongside it to ‘balance’ the event, though he didn’t actually specify any such song that actually exists.
The manufactured controversy has backfired, however – as Macklemore has now topped the charts in the country.
Amid the row, the song has risen to the top of the Australian iTunes chart.
The surge in the song’s popularity would suggest that even if politicians aren’t thrilled about Same Love in Australia, the people are cool with it.
Macklemore hit back at Tony Abbott yesteray.
He said: “I’m getting a lot of tweets from angry, old white dudes in Australia… I think there is a petition to ban me from playing it.
“It’s interesting times in Australia… I’mma go harder!”
The Coalition for Marriage, which has often claimed it supports “freedom of speech”, had claimed it was “bizarre that the NRL would choose to use its half-time entertainment to push a message which it knows millions of Australians disagree with”.
Abbott, who was booed during his appearance at the final in 2014, wrote on Twitter: “Footy fans shouldn’t be subjected to a politicised grand final. Sport is sport!”
Earlier this week, Mr Abbott’s own daughter Frances Abbott appeared in an advert for the Yes campaign.
“You can’t help who you fall in love with,” she said in the advert.
“Love just happens sometimes and it’s unexpected and that’s kind of what’s the awesome thing about it.”
Mr Abbott, who led the country until he wad deposed in an internal party coup in 2015, has called on Australians to vote against equality against the wishes of his own sister Christine Forster, who is waiting for the right to marry her same-sex partner.
Abbott stunned the country last month when he appeared to suggest it would be “best” for Ms Forster’s children to be raised by a straight couple.
Mr Abbott recently stirred controversy when he visited US-based extremist lobbying group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) – despite the group allegedly pressuring countries around the world to keep sodomy laws banning gay sex.
