Macklemore Dropped From Ed Sheeran Tour After ‘Free Palestine’ Speech

Macklemore will no longer appear at the rest of Ed Sheeran's U.S. Loop Tour, a decision that followed his politically outspoken performance earlier this month. During a Sept. 4 show at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the Grammy-winning rapper used his opening set to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, telling the crowd he wanted audiences in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to know they had not been forgotten. MetLife Stadium, which holds about 82,500 people, ranks among the NFL's largest venues and has become a regular stop for major stadium tours in recent years.

Messina Touring Group, the promoter behind the U.S. leg of Sheeran's stadium run, told Rolling Stone that venues on the remaining schedule had informed organizers they would not permit the shows to proceed with Macklemore on the lineup. According to the promoter, keeping him on the bill would have forced the entire tour to be canceled, leaving hundreds of thousands of ticket holders without a concert. Following talks with stakeholders, the choice was made to pull Macklemore from the remaining support dates. The episode illustrates how one onstage moment can reverberate through a multi-million-dollar touring machine, where venue contracts and regional sensitivities can weigh as heavily as an artist's own following. For promoters, the calculus is rarely just about the opening act: a single cancellation can trigger refund liabilities, insurance claims, and strained relationships with venues that book dozens of stadium shows each year.

The rapper, whose real name is Ben Haggerty, had been scheduled for eight of the ten remaining shows on Sheeran's itinerary, which picks back up Sept. 19 in Philadelphia. His planned stops included Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, and Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Representatives for both Macklemore and Sheeran have not responded to Variety's requests for comment. Sheeran's Loop Tour ranks among the highest-grossing stadium runs of the year, and support slots on a trek of that scale are usually finalized months ahead of time, which makes a mid-tour replacement both a logistical headache and a financial hit. Industry veterans note that opening acts are typically locked into contracts with morality clauses and venue approval provisions, meaning a promoter can invoke those terms when local operators raise objections.

His Sept. 4 set drew swift backlash, including a petition from the Israeli American Council calling for his removal from the tour. The petition contended that the event was an Ed Sheeran concert, not a political rally or activist gathering, and asked where the line should be drawn when an opening act uses a global stage to deliver a one-sided political message. On stage, Macklemore said a central reason he joined the tour was to be able to declare "Free Palestine" in stadiums, adding that he wanted those words to carry clearly so people from Gaza to the occupied West Bank would know they had not been forgotten. He then performed "Hind's Hall," a track referencing the pro-Palestinian demonstrators who occupied a building at Columbia University, while images of destruction in Gaza appeared on the stadium screens. The moment circulated widely online and gained fresh attention after the singer Pink reshared a post urging that Macklemore be removed from Sheeran's tour. The controversy mirrors earlier instances in which artists saw tour dates canceled over political statements, a reminder of how quickly a live performance can move from entertainment coverage into a broader cultural flashpoint.