Pink Addresses Backlash Over Comments About Macklemore’s Pro-Palestine Stance: ‘Standing Up for My Own People’

Pink is addressing the backlash over her reaction to Macklemore’s onstage calls to “free Palestine.”

During his opening sets for Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on Sept. 4 and 5, the “Thrift Shop” rapper made pro-Palestine remarks that drew criticism from the pop star.

Shortly after the shows, Pink reshared a post on social media from StopAntisemitism criticizing Macklemore’s remarks and calling for him to be removed from Sheeran’s ongoing stadium tour. On Friday (Sept. 11), the “Just Give Me a Reason” hitmaker took to Instagram to explain why she shared the post and what concerned her about Macklemore’s onstage actions.

“Last Sunday I reposted somebody else’s post about Macklemore’s set at Ed Sheeran’s show,” Pink began her statement. “It said things in words I didn’t write, and I wouldn’t have chosen all of them. Then the comments came, and I did what I do when I’m hurt, which is post snarky memes and act like I’m fine. That’s on me. A repost isn’t a statement, and a meme isn’t a spine. Social media makes all of us cheap and fast, and we all know it.”

She continued, “I was born a Jew. I didn’t pick it, and I’ve never hidden it. And this week a whole lot of people decided what I believe without asking me, without checking a single thing I’ve ever said or done, because a repost and the word ‘Jew’ were apparently enough to fill in the rest.”

Pink clarified that she has never spoken for “Israel, or for any government” and reiterated her belief that “Hamas is a terrorist organization. Palestinians deserve a future that honors their humanity and their aspirations. Protecting innocent life comes first, everywhere, and nobody should ever celebrate the death of a child. Anybody’s child.”

The singer also pointed to her decade-long work as a UNICEF ambassador, saying she has advocated for children impacted by war regardless of where they were born.

“I have grieved every one of them, on both sides of that fence,” she wrote. “I didn’t do it from behind a screen; I went to those children and held them. I’m not going to litigate a complex war in an Instagram caption, and I’m not going to recite anybody’s slogan to earn back a follower.”

In her three-part statement, which continued in the comments, the singer-songwriter recalled a 2014 Macklemore performance in which he wore a costume that was widely criticized as antisemitic. The rapper later apologized, saying, “I respect all cultures and all people.”

“Every Jew I know knew exactly what it was,” Pink wrote on Instagram. “But he apologized, and I let it go, because that’s what we do. We let it go. Then last weekend he stood in front of a stadium full of music-loving families, with violent images from a war on the screens, dedicated a song to the movement of his choice, and then took the mic to tell all of the Jews in the stadium that it wasn’t about them. You don’t get to decide that for us.”

“That’s what prompted my repost,” she continued. “Not ‘Free Palestine,’ and not anyone’s right to say it. I have never asked for another artist to be silenced and I’m not asking now. I don’t need anyone fired, and I don’t need a refund. What I need is to be able to say, as a Jewish mom, that scared me, and it scared people I love, without being told our fear is just propaganda, and without being told I’m somehow cool with genocide because I noticed?”

Pink concluded her statement by reflecting on the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and the start of Rosh Hashanah, wishing her fellow Jewish people a “shana tova” for the new year.

Following his onstage comments in New Jersey, Macklemore stood by his “free Palestine” statements. “Wanting all humans to be treated equal should never be controversial,” he wrote on X, along with video of his speech from the Sept. 5 show.

The controversy also drew a response from the Israeli-American Council (IAC), which launched a petition calling for the rapper to be removed from the next eight U.S. stadium shows he’s slated to open for Sheeran through early November.