In brief
Stadium owners told Sheeran’s tour organisers that they wouldn’t host concerts at their venue if Macklemore was in the lineup.
Macklemore has long taken a stand in support of the Palestinians.
United States rapper Macklemore, whose real name is Benjamin Haggerty, said he was dropped from pop star Ed Sheeran’s US tour after his pro-Palestinian comments and “free Palestine” remarks during a 4 September concert in New Jersey.
A post on Macklemore’s Instagram said that he and Sheeran had “some difficult conversations this past week”.
Messina Touring Group, promoter of the US leg of Sheeran’s Loop tour, told Rolling Stone that the owners of several venues hosting concerts on the tour notified the promoters they would not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore, in the lineup.
“After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates,” the group said. Sheeran had no immediate comment.
Macklemore has previously made pro-Palestinian statements and been critical of Israel’s assault on Gaza and its occupation of the West Bank.
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In 2024, Macklemore released Hind’s Hall, a protest anthem in solidarity with pro-Palestinian demonstrators and in memory of five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed by Israeli troops in Gaza as she pleaded for medical help.
Israel’s military said last month it had opened a criminal investigation into her killing, though rights groups say such probes rarely lead to convictions.
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“A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: ‘Free Palestine,’” Macklemore told a New Jersey crowd while opening for Sheeran earlier this month.
“I want those words to be loud and clear, so that people all the way in Gaza to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten about them.”
International law recognises the territories as illegally occupied.
Macklemore, a Grammy-winning artist, was on the bill to perform at eight of the 10 shows Sheeran has left on his stadium tour, which will resume on 19 September in Philadelphia, according to Variety magazine.
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The Israeli-American Council started a petition urging Sheeran to remove Macklemore from the tour after his comments earlier this month.
A post on Macklemore’s Instagram said billionaire Robert Kraft, owner of US sports franchise the New England Patriots, rallied support among some stadium owners and told Sheeran they will not allow him to perform at their venues if Macklemore stayed on the tour.
Sheeran is booked to play Massachusetts’s Gillette Stadium — the Patriots’ home stadium — later this month.
Kraft has accused the rapper of antisemitism. Macklemore denies being antisemitic and said that conflating antisemitism with criticism of Israel’s actions aims to avoid Israeli accountability.
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Macklemore’s post said he hoped the decision would not affect his relationship with his “friend” Sheeran, who he said was in a difficult position.
“His typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before,” he wrote.
“I hope this isn’t the end of my relationship with Ed. Thirteen years of friendship doesn’t disappear because of one painful disagreement.
“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.”
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