Macklemore donating $1m Ed Sheeran tour earnings to Palestinian charities

Macklemore has vowed to donate his $1 million earnings from Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour to organisations that support the Palestinian people.

The 43-year-old rapper hit headlines when he took to the stage to open the tour, for which he was the support act, at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on September 4, telling the crowd: “"One of the reasons why I wanted to come on this tour was because I wanted to stand up here on stages in stadiums across America and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: Free Palestine.

Macklemore was widely slammed for the comments, with even peers including Pink and Boy George taking aim at the musician, and was eventually dropped from the tour in the wake of the backlash he’d sparked.

However, Macklemore took to Instagram on Wednesday (16.09.26) to say he’s going to donate all of the money he’d earned from the tour, writing: “With everything that has happened over the last 48 hours. I want to bring the conversation back to where it belongs: to the Palestinian people who are still being killed, still living under military occupation, and still fighting for their freedom.

“I will be donating the entire $1 million of my net earnings from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour to six organisations working directly to support the Palestinian people.”

Macklemore then made a public plea to Robert Kraft - the owner of the New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium who had allegedly told Ed he wouldn’t be able to perform at his venues if Macklemore was still the support - as he said: “I invite Robert Kraft to match my donation.

“Whatever we disagree about, perhaps we can agree on this: Palestinian lives are worth protecting. A Palestinian life is no less valuable than any other life on this earth.”

Macklemore had previously said that while Ed had been responsible for removing him from the tour, he doesn’t blame him.

He wrote on Instagram: “Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour.

"But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink 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.

"The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don’t lose sight of that."