Macklemore announced that he will be donating $1 million “to six organizations working directly to support the Palestinian people” after he was kicked off Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour.
On Wednesday (September 16), the Grammy winner said that the amount is all of his net earnings from the tour.
“With everything that has happened over the last 48 hours, I want to bring the conversation back to where it belongs: to the Palestinian people who are still being killed, still living under military occupation, and still fighting for their freedom. I will be donating the entire $1 million of my net earnings from Ed Sheeran's Loop Tour to six organizations working directly to support the Palestinian people,” the rapper wrote in his statement, which was posted to Instagram. “And I invite Robert Kraft to match my donation. Whatever we disagree about, perhaps we can agree on this: Palestinian lives are worth protecting. A Palestinian life is no less valuable than any other life on this earth.”
He continued in a second slide, “That is what this has always been about. Not me. Not a tour. Not the headlines or the controversy. It is about Palestinians right to freedom, dignity and safety in their own homeland. I want to center the parents carrying their children into hospitals without the basic resources to treat them, and the physicians, paramedics, journalists and aid workers who keep going back in. I want to center the organizers and activists who have paid real costs for standing with Palestine. Their risk is of a far different order than mine.”
You can view Macklemore’s post below.
The move comes after The Heist artist delivered an empathetic “Free Palestine” speech during September shows of Sheeran’s tour at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.
“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,” Macklemore said at the time.
The speech was met with a petition for Macklemore’s removal from the tour by the Israeli-American Council, who argued that the rapper had a “one-sided political agenda.” Upon being ousted from Sheeran’s tour, which is scheduled to continue until December 12, 2026, Macklemore claimed that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft blocked him from performing at Gillette Stadium and lobbied other stadium owners to bar him from their venues.
Kraft released a statement a short while later, writing that the decision was made “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…”
Other openers on the tour voluntarily exited the tour in solidarity with Macklemore, including Finneas, Irish vocalist Aaron Rowe, Lukas Graham, and Beoga.
Sheeran also issued a statement, placing the blame of Macklemore’s removal on the promoter.
