Macklemore Kicked Off Sheeran Tour

Seattle’s darling Macklemore was booted from Ed Sheeran’s US tour after taking pro-Palestinian stances during two opening performances.

Timeline

The controversy began on September 4, 2026, at MetLife Stadium, when Macklemore emphatically said “Free Palestine” and told people in Gaza and the West Bank that they had not been forgotten. He then proceeded to perform a protest song with the backdrop of Gaza’s destruction.

The following day at the same stadium, after coming under criticism for the previous night’s comments, he doubled down on his support of Palestine but told Jewish audience members that criticizing Israel was not anti-Semitism.

Scott Eisen, Getty Images

Removal

Yesterday, Macklemore put out a lengthy statement explaining that he had been removed from the tour and the reasons surrounding it. In his statement, he alleged that the owner of Gillette Stadium, Robert Kraft, said Macklemore would not be able to perform at his stadium and rallied other stadium owners against him.

The stadium owners supposedly presented Sheeran with an ultimatum to either drop Macklemore or not play the stadiums. Ed Sheeran has come out and said he tried to find a way to make a deal but to no avail. Sheeran ultimately dropped Macklemore from the tour.

Macklemore said that although Sheeran was like a brother to him, his friendship did not change his responsibility to speak the truth about a suffering people. Notably, pop singer P!nk has also come out against Macklemore, accusing him of anti-Semitism.

I strongly doubt this event will be isolated and will not stifle but reignite the contentious discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as we go into the midterm elections.