Macklemore Removed from Ed Sheeran Tour After Onstage Gaza Comments

Macklemore will no longer be opening for Ed Sheeran’s stadium tour after saying “Free Palestine” and making statements supporting Palestinians in Gaza at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on Sept. 4.

Rolling Stone broke the news Monday and reported an unspecified number of venues notified Messina Touring Group, which is promoting Sheeran’s “Loop Tour” in the U.S., that they wouldn’t allow a show with Macklemore opening.

Messina Touring Group sent a statement to Rolling Stone : “As 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. After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates.”

The Seattle rapper confirmed his exclusion from Sheeran’s tour with a lengthy Instagram post and alleges that Robert Kraft, owner of Gillette Stadium, rallied other stadium owners to not allow Macklemore, putting Sheeran and his team in a difficult position.

“Ed is my friend. I’ve known him for 13 years. We’ve shared late nights, studio sessions and stages. He has this infectious magic about him that I’ve grown to love. I consider him a brother,” Macklemore wrote. “And because of that, we’ve had some difficult conversations this past week. The type of talks rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement. Nothing I’m writing here is out of spite of because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can’t change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened.

“Ed was in a fucked up position,” he adds. “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.’

> View this post on Instagram A post shared by BEN (@macklemore)

Macklemore opens his statement with perspective, saying that neither he nor Sheeran are victims in the situation, and the only victims are the Palestinian people. He has been vocal about his support for a free Palestine for years,

“Taking a side can cost you. Money, brand deals, sponsorships, festivals, private shows, relationships and access. I’ve lost all of those things,” Macklemore said. “But there is no neutral position between the oppressor and oppressed. When one side has the bombs and bottomless financial and military support from America, refusing to take a side doesn’t leave you in the middle.

“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? Because now I’m sharing the stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums of 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? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that’s why this time it became so important to silence me.”

His comments during the show at MetLife drew criticism, including from pop star P!NK, who shared an Instagram post from the StopAntisemitism account. She later clarified her stance with a statement on Friday, saying she’s not against a free Palestinian state.

“I have never asked for another artist to be silenced and I’m not asking now,” P!NK wrote in her statement. “I don’t need anyone fired, and I don’t need a refund. What I need is to be able to say, as a Jewish mom, ‘that scared me, and it scared people I love,’ without being told our fear is just propaganda, and without being told I’m somehow cool with genocide because I noticed?”

> View this post on Instagram A post shared by P!NK (@pink)

The Israeli-Palestinian divide has affected artists on both sides. Kehlani , who has been outspoken about Palestinian rights, had a SummerStage concert in 2025 canceled because of “security and safety issues.”

Johnny Greenwood has been affected by music fans boycotting Israel. He’s had to cancel performances with Israeli singer Dudu Tassa in the U.K. because of the political divide.

Promoters and festival organizers aren’t immune. In 2024, dozens of artists pulled out of South by Southwest to protest the U.S. Army’s status as a super sponsor of the festival.

Last summer, organizers of Field Day in the U.K. faced criticism from many artists for their ties to private equity firm KKR, which owns the event’s parent company, Superstruct Entertainment. The festival responded with a statement opposing “KKR’s unethical investments in Israel,” and the event went on as planned despite dozens of artists pulling out.

_Originally reported by [Pollstar](https://news.pollstar.com/2026/09/14/macklemore-dropped-from-ed-sheerans-stadium-tour-following-onstage-free-palestine-comments/)._