BACKFIRED: Macklemore’s 2012 Pro-Gay Anthem Hits #1 On Australian Charts After Slam By Tony Abbott

The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

Calls from politicians, including a former PM, and others to ban US hip hop artist Macklemore from singing his hit Same Love at the NRL grand final have seemingly backfired, with the song shooting to the top of the Australian iTunes charts.

Despite being first released in 2012 by the Seattle-based rapper and his co-writer Ryan Lewis, the song surged to the top of the list on Thursday night, replacing another Macklemore track Good Old Days from his latest album GEMINI.

The Grammy-nominated song became an anthem for same-sex couples around the world, reaching No.5 in Billboard’s Top 40 in the United States and No.1 in both Australia and New Zealand in 2013.

While Macklemore was announced as the grand final entertainment back in September 1, it was only this week that a former rugby league player Tony Wall called for NRL boss Todd Greenberg to “Take LGBTIQ politics out of the NRL”.

Macklemore’s biggest hit to date is the 2012 followup to Same Love, Thrift Shop, which topped every chart in the world, selling seven million digital downloads in the US alone and garnering over 1.1 billion views on YouTube.