Macklemore dumped from Ed Sheeran’s tour over pro-Palestine comments

US rapper Macklemore says he was dropped as the support act for Ed Sheeran’s American tour after making pro-Palestine comments on stage this month.

The Thrift Shop rapper stood by his “Free Palestine” comments, made during a performance at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium this month, in a detailed Instagram post that attracted criticism from a US-based pro-Israel activist group and the singer Pink.

In the post, Macklemore said Sheeran had told him that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft called him to say Macklemore was banned from performing in a stadium owned by his business group.

“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,” he said in the post.

Sheeran, who is a famously apolitical artist, was forced to pick a side. While Macklemore says the pair remain friends, how did this controversy arise?

The Grammy Award-winning artist, whose real name is Benjamin Haggerty, broke records with his 2013 hit Thrift Shop with Ryan Lewis and featuring Wanz, becoming the second independently distributed song to reach number one on Billboard’s Hot 100.

It came off the back of 2012 hit Same Love – also with Lewis – supporting same-sex relationships and marriage equality, three years before the US legalised it.

Known for independently producing and distributing his music, Macklemore has never been coy about his advocacy. When he sang at the NRL Grand Final in 2017 , he called for marriage equality during an emotional performance one month before it was legalised in Australia.

On Tuesday morning (AEST), the artist said via Instagram, after he was barred from Sheeran’s Loop tour of North America, that he had expressed support on stage for Palestine for the past three years.

“What I said at MetLife, I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years. So why is it an issue now?” Macklemore said, adding that he believed his comments during concerts had become a “resistance” and thus it “became so important to silence me”.

“I’m sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America. At a certain level of exposure, ‘Free Palestine’ becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next?”

Sheeran has not commented, and a replacement opening act for his tour is yet to be confirmed.

The controversy began at MetLife Stadium on September 4, during his support spot for Sheeran, when Macklemore exclaimed “Free Palestine” while introducing his protest song Hind’s Hall, and showed footage of the devastation in Gaza on a screen.

Written after the 2024 campus protests supporting Palestinians, the song is named for Hind Rajab , a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed after Israeli forces opened fire on her family’s car in Gaza City. (Macklemore also performed the song during his 2024 tour of Australia .)