American rapper Macklemore will no longer be supporting Ed Sheeran‘s Loop Tour amid a backlash against his “free Palestine” pleas.
As the 4x Grammy winner took the stage for Sheeran’s tour earlier this month at MetLife Stadium, he called for “safety and peace” for all before performing his protest song “Hind’s Hall.”
He later emphasized that his support for Palestinians is “in no way a criticism” of Jewish people. “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,” he said on stage.
In a stament, first shared with Rolling Stone, Messina Touring Group, promoter of the U.S. leg of Sheeran’s Loop Tour, said: “As the 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 decision follows the Israeli-American Council starting a petition urging Sheeran to “remove Macklemore” from the remainder of the tour.
“This was an Ed Sheeran concert – not a political rally, not a protest, and not an activist event,” the petition reads. “The issue is not whether Macklemore has the right to hold political views. The question is where the line should be drawn when an opening act uses a global concert platform to advance a one-sided political agenda.”
Macklemore wrote his 2024 protest anthem “Hind’s Hall” in support of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, named for Columbia students’ renaming of academic building Hamilton Hall to Hind’s Hall, in honor of five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed in Gaza.
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