American rapper Macklemore announced Monday that he had been excluded from Ed Sheeran’s tour, an exclusion he attributes to his pro-Palestinian remarks during previous concerts. The artist, who opened for the tour, launched the slogan “Free Palestine” during two concerts in early September at MetLife Stadium, near New York, before assuring Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank that they were “not forgotten”.
Comments which caused controversy in the United States, leading to accusations of anti-Semitism towards Macklemore and calls on social networks to ban him from the tour, notably relayed by the singer Pink. Ed Sheeran would have ended up giving in to pressure, according to Macklemore.
“Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from the Loop Tour,” he explained in a message posted on Instagram, noting that the pop singer’s “usually apolitical stance” had been “challenged like never before” in recent days. According to the rapper, Robert Kraft, the owner of Gillette Stadium in Boston, contacted Ed Sheeran to tell him that Macklemore could not perform there, and would have rallied other stadiums demanding his exclusion from the tour, under penalty of canceling the concerts.
Ed Sheeran’s tour promoter, Messina Touring Group, confirmed in a statement to the magazine Rolling Stone that Macklemore was no longer on the tour. “We have been informed by the venues involved in the upcoming US tour dates that they will not allow a concert with Macklemore on the bill, which will result in the cancellation of the tour and affect hundreds of thousands of fans,” the promoter explained. “After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not perform on the remaining opening dates.”
“If those words cost me the stage, while bringing the debate back to Palestine, then it was the most successful tour I have ever been on”
In his Instagram post, Macklemore assured that he wanted to remain friends with Ed Sheeran, despite this “painful disagreement”. “If those words cost me the stage, while bringing the debate back to Palestine, then it was the most successful tour I have ever been on,” he said. More than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since 2023 in the Israeli offensive launched in retaliation for the October 7 attack, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry.
On the Israeli side, the attack carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023 left more than 1,200 dead. Macklemore established himself as a big name in global rap a little over a decade ago, thanks to hits like “Thrift Shop” and “Can’t Hold Us.” After the start of the conflict in Gaza, he condemned the October 7 attack while denouncing Israel’s action, which he described as “genocide.”
In 2024, he notably published “Hind’s Hall”, a piece inspired by the occupation of a building at Columbia University, in tribute to Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl whose death sparked a wave of international indignation.
