Macklemore speaks out after being dropped from Ed Sheeran tour over ‘Free Palestine’ comments: “I’m sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world…at a certain level of exposure, ‘Free Palestine’ becomes too much of a risk”
Macklemore has spoken out today (September 14) after being dropped from the upcoming Ed Sheeran tour over his recent “Free Palestine” comments.
After making an impassioned speech calling for “all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality” while opening for Sheeran across recent dates in New Jersey, the rapper faced calls for his removal from the tour by the Israeli-American Council, who claimed he had used his platform to “advance a one-sided political agenda”.
Speaking from the stage at MetLife Stadium recently, Macklemore told the crowd that he wanted those in Gaza and the West Bank to know “they have not been forgotten”, adding: “I believe that every human being walking on this earth deserves exactly the same freedom.”
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“I say Free Palestine, free Cuba, Congo, Sudan and Iran and all the people of America who live in fear because of this terrorist organisation ICE,” he continued, before launching into pro-Palestine track ‘Hind’s Hall’ while showing footage of Gaza onscreen.
Now, it’s been announced that the musician has been dropped from the tour following the comments.
In a statement shared with Rolling Stone, Messina Touring Group, promoter of the U.S. 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.”
Macklemore later responded on Instagram with a lengthy statement in which he claimed that after Robert Kraft — the owner of the New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium — started a campaign against Sheeran.
“Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium,” Macklemore wrote on his Instagram account. “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.”
NME has reached out to representatives of Kraft and Sheeran for comment.
He went on to call Sheeran a “friend” and said the musician “was in a fucked up position.” Macklemore continued: “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. 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.’”
He went on to address his recent statements, which were criticised by Boy George – who drew huge backlash recently after sharing the AI-assisted pro-Israel track ‘We Will Dance Again’. He posted an AI-generated image to Instagram showing Sheeran wearing a shirt that says: “Wkack Mack No More”. He also took to Twitter/X to say he had “never been an @Edsheeran fan and nothing has changed”.
P!NK, meanwhile, also reshared a post from the StopAntisemitism group, who claimed that Macklemore had “accused Israel of a false ‘genocide,’ and turned a mainstream event into a political nightmare against the Jewish state,” per JustJared.
Addressing the criticisms he’s received of late today in his Instagram post, Macklemore added: “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?” the musician wrote. “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.” You can read the full Instagram post above.
Artists have been criticising the comments online, including Garbage’s Shirley Manson. Writing on Instagram, the musician said: “This is madness. Sheer madness. So @macklemore is being dropped off a major tour because some people felt threatened and “scared” when he stood on stage and pleaded for the protections of an occupied and persecuted people? This is so wildly unjust.
“Can I just remind everyone that nothing Macklemore actually said was violent or hateful or remotely radical.”
Manson added: “Just because you ignore the truth doesn’t make the truth go away or make it any less potent. Macklemore’s words were not antisemitic yet he is being punished for simply pleading for the occupation, the oppression and the violence to stop. Whatever happened to free speech? So this is where we are at now is it?” You can read the full post below:
A United Nations-appointed Commission of Inquiry concluded in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and Amnesty International reached the same conclusion.
Israel has repeatedly denied committing genocide or war crimes, maintaining that its military campaign followed the Hamas-led attacks of October 7 and was an act of self-defence. It rejected the UN Commission’s findings as “distorted and false” and a “libellous sham”.
A more recent Commission of Inquiry from the UN said in June that “Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide and atrocity crimes in the Gaza Strip and war crimes in the West Bank.”
In other news, Sheeran was recently named among the wealthiest names in British music, alongside Noel and Liam Gallagher, Paul McCartney and the Eavis family.
Elsewhere, back in January, he was asking fans to “text in song recommendations” for him to play on his 2026 ‘Loop Tour’.
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