This article was originally published on Crafting Your Home. A human contributor also wrote and edited the post.
The post Macklemore Breaks His Silence After Ed Sheeran’s Team Drops Him From The Loop Tour Over ‘Free Palestine’ Chants first appeared on Crafting Your Home
Macklemore is no longer part of Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour, and the rapper is not staying quiet about why.
Following days of mounting pressure from pro-Israel advocacy groups and reported threats from venues to cancel shows altogether, Sheeran’s camp confirmed that Macklemore would be pulled from the remaining stateside dates of the tour.
The Seattle native, born Benjamin Haggerty, had been booked to open eight of the final ten shows on the run, according to Variety, but his onstage declarations of support for Palestinians during two September concerts at MetLife Stadium set off a chain of events that ended with his exit from the tour entirely.
The controversy began on September 4, when Macklemore took the stage ahead of Sheeran at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, before a crowd of more than 80,000 people.
Wearing a keffiyeh, the rapper told the audience that part of his motivation for joining the tour was the platform it gave him to speak out.
“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,” he said, according to Complex.
He went on to explain why the message mattered to him personally, saying he wanted “the people all the way in Gaza to the occupied West Bank” to know “we have not forgotten about them.”
He then performed his 2024 protest song “Hind’s Hall,” a track named after the building Columbia University protesters renamed in honor of Hind Rajab, a young girl killed in Gaza, while footage from the region played behind him on the stadium screens.
The Backlash Builds and a Petition Spreads
Macklemore returned to the same message the following night, September 5, again calling for a “Free Palestine” and performing “Hind’s Hall” for the MetLife crowd.
That second appearance is what turned a single viral moment into a sustained campaign. The Israeli American Council, which says it represents more than 150,000 members, launched a petition addressed to Sheeran, his management, MetLife Stadium leadership, and tour promoter Live Nation, demanding Macklemore’s removal from every remaining date.
Stop Antisemitism and the Anti-Defamation League also spoke out against his remarks in the days that followed, according to Axios.
The petition itself did not dispute Macklemore’s right to hold his views, but argued the concert stage was the wrong venue for them. “This was an Ed Sheeran concert, not a political rally, not a protest, and not an activist event,” the petition read, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter and Complex.
“The issue is not whether Macklemore has the right to hold political views. The question is where the line should be drawn when an opening act uses a global concert platform to advance a one-sided political agenda.”
The document went further, claiming the messaging “relies on selective imagery, biased messaging, and disputed claims presented to a massive audience as fact, without context or complexity.”
Macklemore did not back down in the days between the shows and his removal. On September 7, he posted video of his MetLife speech to social media with the caption “Wanting all humans to be treated equal should never be controversial.”
During that same set, he addressed Jewish members of the crowd directly, saying, “Criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide, in no way is a criticism of you. My message is for peace, love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality,” according to remarks captured by both PA and The Hollywood Reporter.
By September 14, the situation had escalated past a petition and into an actual lineup change. Messina Touring Group, which has served as Sheeran’s longtime concert promoter, issued a statement explaining the decision from a logistics standpoint rather than a political one.
“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 company said in a statement provided to The Hollywood Reporter.
“After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates.”
Macklemore Names Robert Kraft and Details His Conversation With Sheeran
Macklemore’s own account of how the decision came together paints a more specific picture, and it centers on New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
In a lengthy Instagram post, the rapper said Sheeran told him that Kraft had pushed back on his participation in the tour and then rallied other stadium owners to do the same. “Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium,” Macklemore wrote, according to Rolling Stone and Variety.
“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.” Reps for Kraft and the Kraft Group did not return requests for comment from either outlet.
Macklemore described his conversation with Sheeran in more personal terms, framing his former tourmate as caught between two difficult positions rather than as an adversary. “Ed was in a f–ked up position,” he wrote, per Billboard.
“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. 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 added a broader reflection on the cost of political speech in the entertainment industry, writing that taking a side “can cost you. Money, brand deals, sponsorships, festivals, private shows, relationships and access. I’ve lost all of those things. But there is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed.”
Even while laying out those grievances, Macklemore was careful to note that he was not asking for sympathy, and he extended that same framing to Sheeran.
“I am not a victim,” he wrote, according to Axios. “Ed Sheeran is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families.”
He also expressed hope that the fallout would not permanently damage his relationship with Sheeran, whom he described as a friend of thirteen years. “I hope this isn’t the end of my relationship with Ed,” he wrote, according to Billboard.
“Thirteen years of friendship doesn’t disappear because of one painful disagreement. I didn’t need 10 shows from Ed. I needed two. Two chances to stand in front of 90,000 people and say the words that somehow became too dangerous to say.
Free Palestine. 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.”
Where Things Stand as the Tour Moves Forward
As of this writing, Sheeran himself has not issued a personal public statement addressing Macklemore’s removal or the allegations involving Kraft, and reps for Sheeran did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Hollywood Reporter.
Live Nation, which oversees the Loop Tour, has also not commented publicly on the matter. The next stop on the tour is scheduled for Philadelphia on September 19, with Macklemore no longer listed among the acts set to open the remaining American dates through the tour’s scheduled conclusion in November.
Macklemore has been publicly outspoken in support of Palestinians since shortly after the war in Gaza began, releasing “Hind’s Hall” in 2024 with proceeds directed toward humanitarian relief efforts.
His removal from Sheeran’s tour marks one of the most high-profile instances yet of an artist facing direct professional consequences for pro-Palestinian statements made from a major arena stage, and it has reignited a broader conversation across the music industry about where the line falls between an artist’s personal politics and a headliner’s brand.
For now, both Macklemore and the advocacy groups that pushed for his removal seem to agree on one thing: this moment was never really about a concert lineup at all.
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