Macklemore dropped from Ed Sheeran's US tour after backlash over pro-Palestine chant

LAST UPDATE | 4 hrs ago

MACKLEMORE HAS BEEN dropped from Ed Sheeran’s US tour after his chants of ‘Free Palestine’ reportedly landed him in hot water with American venues.

The American rapper joined Sheeran on tour in two venues across the US earlier this month. He used both performances to advocate for Palestinians, wearing a keffiyeh and calling for peace.

In a lengthy statement on social media on Monday, Macklemore recounted conversations that he had with Sheerhan in recent days amid a pushback against the rapper’s presence on the tour.

Macklemore said that the British singer has a “typical apolitical stance” on contentious issues but that this had been “challenged in a way it never had been before”.

As part of this, Macklemore alleged that stadium owners were pressuring Sheerhan to drop Macklemore from the tour, otherwise Sheeran would not be allowed to play the venues either.

“Ed was in a fucked up position. He knew it. His typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before. He told me that the words “Free Palestine” and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with,” Macklemore said on Instagram.

“I told him that if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood.”

Macklemore added that he was “not a victim”, but that the “victims are the Palestinian people” who have been “killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence”.

During his first performance on the tour on Friday 4 September, he performed his 2024 protest song Hind’s Hall while footage from Gaza and the occupied West Bank appeared on screens around the stadium.

He also advocated for freedom for people of Cuba, Congo, Sudan and Iran.

The Israeli-American Council (IAC) then launched a petition calling on Sheeran and tour organisers to remove Macklemore from his remaining appearances.

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There are 10 dates left across the US on Sheeran’s tour, and Macklemore was listed as a “special guest” for eight of them. He has now been removed from the line-up.

A statement shared with Rolling Stone, Messina Touring Group, promoter of the US leg of Sheeran’s Loop Tour, said: “As the concert promoter for Ed Sheeran’s U.S. Loop Tour, we have been notified by venues on the upcoming U.S. tour dates that they will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup, which would result in the cancellation of the tour and impact hundreds of thousands of fans.

“After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates.”

The rapper has been a long-time supporter of Palestinians and said he had chosen to join Sheeran on the Loop tour to spread his message.

Macklemore’s statement in full is below

“I’m not sure how to start this. So I’m going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour.

“But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families.

“The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don’t lose sight of that.

“Ed is my friend. I’ve known him for 13 years. We’ve shared late nights, studio sessions and stages. He has this infectious magic about him that I’ve grown to love. I consider him a brother. And because of that, we’ve had some difficult conversations this past week.

“The type of talks rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement.

“Nothing I’m writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can’t change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened.

“Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium.

“Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.

“Ed was in a fucked up position. He knew it. His typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before. He told me that the words “Free Palestine” and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with.

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“I told him that if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood. But he couldn’t get past his public facing, “I don’t take sides.”

“And I get why people don’t. Taking a side can cost you. Money, brand deals, sponsorships, festivals, private shows, relationships and access. I’ve lost all of those things. But there is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed. When one side has the bombs and bottomless financial and military support from America, refusing to take a side doesn’t leave you in the middle.

“What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years. So why is it an issue now? Because now I’m sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America.

“At a certain level of exposure, “Free Palestine” becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that’s why this time it became so important to silence me.

“And one of the most effective ways to enforce that silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real. And that is exactly why the word matters too much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying “Free Palestine” gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn’t protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability.

“I hope this isn’t the end of my relationship with Ed. Thirteen years of friendship doesn’t disappear because of one painful disagreement. I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door will always be open to continuing that conversation.
When my brother Omar was doing the subtitles for the video I posted from MetLife, I thanked him. He told me there’s a phrase in Arabic:
لا شكر على واجب

“La shukra ala wajeb.” There is no thanks for a duty.

“That stayed with me. Because that’s what this has become for me and millions of others around the world. A duty. Not something deserving of praise or gratitude. Not brave. Human.

“Who is winning the internet, who is getting canceled, who gets to play the stadium and who doesn’t, all of it becomes so small when held against what we are actually witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank.

“An entire people being displaced, starved and killed while the world debates which words we are allowed to use to describe it, how those words make us feel, and whether our discomfort matters more than the people living through a genocide.

“I didn’t need 10 shows from Ed. I needed 2. Two chances to stand in front of 90,000 people and say the words that somehow became too dangerous to say. Free Palestine.

“But if those words cost me the stage, while turning the conversation back to Palestine, then it was the most successful tour I’ve ever been on.”