Macklemore cut from Ed Sheeran U.S. tour after onstage 'Free Palestine' remarks | CBC News

U.S. rapper blames NFL owner, says Sheeran told him 'Free Palestine' chant was 'hurtful' to many

Macklemore has been dropped from the U.S. leg of English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran's tour after several venues in the United States threatened to cancel the scheduled concerts if the American rapper — and outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights — was not removed.

Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, better known as Macklemore, joined Sheeran for the first two U.S. shows on the Loop Tour on Sept. 4 and 5 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. The Seattle-born Grammy winner was slated to open for the remaining eight of Sheeran's 10 U.S. shows before he was dropped from the tour.

Macklemore's onstage remarks at MetLife — including chanting "Free Palestine" and expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank — drew criticism from pro-Israel groups.

The rapper also wore a keffiyeh, a checkered black-and-white scarf long worn by Palestinians, and performed his song Hind's Hall, one of two songs he released in 2024 in support of student protesters on university campuses and to decry Israel's military actions in Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks on Israel of Oct. 7, 2023.

The Israeli American Council (IAC) also launched a petition calling for Sheeran to remove Macklemore from the rest of the tour. In a statement issued following the announcement he would be cut, the IAC said it welcomes the decision.

"Anyone who chooses to turn an 80,000-person concert into a vehicle for advancing a one-sided political agenda must stand behind that choice," it said. "A concert stage is not a platform for anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda."

Messina Touring Group, the promoter of the U.S. leg of the tour, told Rolling Stone magazine that the decision to remove Macklemore came after "discussions with stakeholders."

"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," the group said on Monday.

Macklemore responded Monday in a lengthy statement posted on Instagram, blaming his removal from the tour on New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who owns owns Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts. He claimed Kraft said Macklemore would not be allowed on stage and rallied other stadium owners to threaten to cancel scheduled concerts if he was not taken off the bill. The threats placed Sheeran, his friend, in a difficult position, Macklemore said.

"Ed [Sheeran] was in a f--ked 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.

"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.'"