Macklemore has been removed from the remainder of Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour across America, after venues threatened to cancel any concerts featuring the rapper on the bill.
Update: Macklemore has issued a statement on his socials.
In a lengthy post, the rapper confirms that “Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour.”
He adds, “I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families. The victims are the Palestinian people.”
Macklemore then calls Sheeran his “brother,” revealing that the two of them have “had some difficult conversations this past week... rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement. Nothing I’m writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can’t change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened.”
He clarifies that Robert Kraft, whose Kraft Group owns Gillette Stadium, called Ed and said Macklemore would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Kraft said that other stadium owners agreed with him and gave Sheeran an ultimatum: “if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.”
Macklemore says that this left Sheeran in “a f**ked up position” and that “his typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before.”
He says he hopes this isn’t the end of his relationship with Sheeran. “Thirteen years of friendship doesn’t disappear because of one painful disagreement,” he continued. “I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door will always be open to continuing that conversation.”
The Grammy-winning rapper then concluded by writing, “I didn’t need 10 shows from Ed. I needed 2. Two chances to stand in front of 90,000 people and say the words that somehow became too dangerous to say. Free Palestine. But if those words cost me the stage, while turning the conversation back to Palestine, then it was the most successful tour I’ve ever been on.”
The rapper (real name Ben Haggerty) made headlines earlier this month following his September 4 concert at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where he performed his protest song “Hind’s Hall” and gave a political speech in which he called for a “free Palestine.”
“A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: Free Palestine,” Macklemore said to the crowd. “I said, ‘Free Palestine!’ I want those words to be loud and clear, so that people all the way in Gaza to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten about them.”
After clips of the speech were posted online, singer P!nk reshared a post on Instagram from @stop_antisemitism, calling for Macklemore to be removed from Sheeran’s tour.
On Friday (September 11), P!nk responded to the backlash in a 1,300-word message on Instagram, writing, “[The [post] said things in words I didn’t write, and I wouldn’t have chosen all of them. Then the comments came, and I did what I do when I’m hurt, which is post snarky memes and act like I’m fine. That’s on me. A repost isn’t a statement, and a meme isn’t a spine. Social media makes all of us cheap and fast, and we all know it.”
P!nk then explained that as a “born Jew... a whole lot of people decided what I believe without asking me, without checking a single thing I’ve ever said or done, because a repost and the word ‘Jew’ were apparently enough to fill in the rest.”
She clarified that she doesn’t “speak for Israel, or for any government. I never have,” but stands by her previous comments that “Hamas is a terrorist organization. Palestinians deserve a future that honors their humanity and their aspirations. Protecting innocent life comes first, everywhere, and nobody should ever celebrate the death of a child. Anybody’s child.”
She concluded by writing, “I have never asked for another artist to be silenced and I’m not asking now. I don’t need anyone fired, and I don’t need a refund. What I need is to be able to say, as a Jewish mom, that scared me, and it scared people I love, without being told our fear is just propaganda, and without being told I’m somehow cool with genocide because I noticed?”
Now Messina Touring Group, which promotes Sheeran’s U.S. tour, has issued a statement, confirming that Macklemore will no longer be performing the remaining eight dates he was on the bill for.
“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,” the company writes. “After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates.”
Neither Macklemore or Sheeran have yet to comment.