After more than a week of fallout from Macklemore’s “Free Palestine” comments while opening a concert on Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour, venues told the tour’s promoter they would not allow concerts with the rapper on the lineup.
The decision removes Macklemore from one of the biggest concert tours in the world. Touring Data reported it grossed $98.6 million, with 754,050 tickets sold across 17 shows.
The controversy began on Sept. 4 and 5 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey — west of Manhattan and home of the NFL’s New York Giants and New York Jets. At the Sept. 5 show, Macklemore told the crowd, “One of the reasons why I wanted to come on this tour was because I wanted to stand up here on stages and stadiums across America and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: Free Palestine.”
“I want those words to be loud and clear, so the people from Gaza, all the way to the occupied West Bank, know that we have not forgotten them,” Macklemore said.
Before performing his 2024 protest song “Hind’s Hall,” Macklemore praised Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian encampment movement. Wearing a keffiyeh tied around his neck, he then addressed Jews in the audience.
“To all of my Jewish brothers and sisters: criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you,” Macklemore said. “My message is for peace; love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect and equality.”
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Macklemore has made Gaza a major part of his public work. At a Washington rally that November, he said, “I don’t know enough. But I know enough that this is a genocide.”
Among the most high-profile artists to criticize Macklemore’s MetLife Stadium rant was P!NK. Born Alecia Moore, P!NK is a Jewish Grammy-winning pop star who has been increasingly public about her Judaism and antisemitism since Oct. 7.
On Sept. 6, P!NK reposted a StopAntisemitism Instagram Story criticizing Macklemore’s performance — and was criticized herself. She posted an Instagram statement Sept. 11, hours before Rosh Hashanah began at sundown.
“I’ve been quiet in my own words for a week, which you know isn’t like me. So here they are,” P!NK said on Sept. 11. “Last Sunday I reposted somebody else’s post about Macklemore’s set at Ed Sheeran’s show. It said things in words I didn’t write, and I wouldn’t have chosen all of them.”
“I was born a Jew. I didn’t pick it, and I’ve never hidden it,” P!NK said. “And this week a whole lot of people decided what I believe without asking me.” P!NK had stated her position in an Oct. 30, 2023 Instagram post: “Hamas is a terrorist organization that seeks to destroy Jews” and “Palestinians need a solution that honors their aspirations and their humanity.”
P!NK also brought up a bit of Macklemore’s history. “I was in the room at the Grammys in 2014 when Macklemore rapped ‘Same Love’ and 33 couples, gay and straight, got married to it, and I cheered, no questions asked,” P!NK said. “Four months later Macklemore put on a hooked nose, a black beard and a bowl cut, performed in it, and called it a ‘random costume.’ Every Jew I know knew exactly what it was.”
P!NK, who has been performing in front of sold-out stadium audiences for over two decades, called out Macklemore’s remarks at MetLife Stadium.
“Then last weekend he stood in front of a stadium full of music-loving families, with violent images from a war on the screens, dedicated a song to the movement of his choice, and then took the mic to tell all of the Jews in the stadium that it wasn’t about them,” P!NK said. “You don’t get to decide that for us.”
P!NK said her objection was not to the slogan itself.
“That’s what prompted my repost. Not ‘Free Palestine,’ and not anyone’s right to say it,” P!NK said. “I have never asked for another artist to be silenced and I’m not asking now. I don’t need anyone fired.”
On Sept. 14, Macklemore said conversations about his future on Sheeran’s tour had been underway for a week. Sheeran is scheduled to perform Sept. 25 and 26 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, home of the New England Patriots. The stadium is owned by Kraft Group, led by Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who has made fighting antisemitism a public cause through the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate.
“Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him,” Macklemore said in his Sept. 14 statement. “Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium.”
Macklemore said Sheeran told him Kraft “had rallied some of the other stadium owners” and that they gave Sheeran an ultimatum: “if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.”
Kraft Group confirmed the Gillette Stadium decision. “Based on Macklemore’s recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran’s shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community, we determined that his participation in the September 25th and 26th concerts at Gillette Stadium would cross that line.”
Messina Touring Group, the promoter of Sheeran’s U.S. tour, confirmed that the issue extended beyond Gillette Stadium.
“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. … After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates.”
On Sept. 14, Macklemore said Sheeran and his team removed him from the tour. He said Sheeran told him “the words ‘Free Palestine’ and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with.”
Macklemore said the size of Sheeran’s tour changed the reaction. “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. “Because now 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.
“Antisemitism is real,” he said. “When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying ‘Free Palestine’ gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn’t protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability.”
Macklemore ended by saying losing the remaining shows was worth it. “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.”
Three days earlier, P!NK had described her own reason for why it was worth it to enter the dispute as a Jewish artist.
“And now I’m standing up for my own people, and I thought I knew going in how lonely that would be,” P!NK said. “And it’s lonelier than that. But I’m doing it anyway.”
