Macklemore is no longer on Ed Sheeran’s stadium tour following his recent “Free Palestine” speech.
Monday (Sept. 14), Rolling Stone cited a rep for Messina Touring Group, the promoter behind the U.S. leg of the Sheeran-headlined tour in question, as stating that the Grammy-winning artist “will not be performing on the remaining support dates.”
Complex has reached out to various reps for comment. As of this writing, neither Macklemore nor Sheeran appear to have publicly addressed the lineup change.
If the lineup had continued as originally announced, Macklemore would have had eight more support dates on Sheeran’s Loop Tour on his schedule. The Messina statement claimed that vanes on the upcoming dates had informed them that they would “not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup,” leading to “discussions with stakeholders,” and ultimately, Macklemore’s removal from the dates.
“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. … I want those words to be loud and clear, so the people from Gaza all the way to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten them,” Macklemore told the crowd during a recent New York show, as seen in the video above.
When sharing the clip, Macklemore nodded at the pushback he had received from some in response to his remarks by pointing out that “wanting all humans to be treated equal should never be controversial.”
This echoed comments he gave in New York. Addressing “all of my Jewish brothers and sisters,” Macklemore said that speaking out against genocide “in no way is a criticism of you.”
Back in 2024, Macklemore released “Hind’s Hall,” a protest track in support of the Palestinian people that finds him mentioning both Joe Biden and Drake while arguing that the music industry at large was “complicit in their platform of silence.”
