Macklemore is off the rest of Ed Sheeran’s U.S. stadium tour after several venues told the promoter they would not allow the concert to go ahead with him on the lineup. Messina Touring Group said those objections could have forced cancellation of the tour and affected hundreds of thousands of fans, and said that after discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore would not play the remaining support dates.
The move lands just before Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour was set to resume on Friday, Sept. 19, in Philadelphia, and it ends a stretch in which Macklemore had been scheduled for eight of the 10 shows left on the U.S. leg. For readers searching his name now, the reason is plain: the fallout from his onstage pro-Palestine remarks at MetLife Stadium has moved from social media outrage to a touring decision with real stadium-level consequences.
At the first of his two shows at MetLife Stadium outside New York City on Sept. 4, Macklemore yelled “Free Palestine” from the stage, expressed solidarity with people in Gaza and the West Bank, showed images from the devastation in Gaza and performed “Hind’s Hall.” He later said a big part of why he wanted the tour was to stand in stadiums and say “Free Palestine,” adding that he wanted the words to be loud and clear so people from Gaza to the West Bank knew they had not been forgotten.
The venue objections were not named in the promoter’s statement, but the list tied to the dispute includes Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. That pressure came after the first MetLife performance drew sharp criticism: StopAntisemitism accused Macklemore of ambushing fans with “anti-Israel propaganda,” and Pink amplified that post before later saying she did not want him silenced and did not object to his “Free Palestine” calls.
Pink’s response put a human face on the split running through the backlash. She said, “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?”
The dispute now sits at the point where politics, public pressure and live touring collide. The Israeli American Council launched a petition demanding that Ed Sheeran remove Macklemore from the rest of the tour, and the promoter’s warning that venues could have shut down dates altogether explains why the decision moved so quickly. Macklemore remains a flashpoint, but the next concrete date on the calendar belongs to Sheeran alone: Philadelphia on Friday, Sept. 19.
