Macklemore, Ed Sheeran tour controversy explained
USA TODAY’s Melissa Ruggieri explains the fallout following Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour.
Video Team – USA TODAY Entertainment
Music and politics have collided for as long as music and politics have existed.
The Chicks, Sinead O’Connor and Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) all faced backlash and, at least temporarily, crippled careers for stating inflammatory opinions rooted in political conviction.
But rarely – if ever – has an artist been yanked from a tour for espousing beliefs opposed by a venue owner, as happened to Macklemore when it was disclosed that Robert Kraft, Jewish billionaire owner of The New England Patriots and the team’s Gillette Stadium, was involved in orchestrating Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour after he made pro-Palestine comments at two concerts.
Now, Macklemore is garnering support from musicians, celebrities and politicians while Sheeran is being vilified and lost all his opening acts as they each announced they would leave the tour in solidarity with Macklemore and the Palestinian people.
So if it’s nothing new for music and politics to mix, what makes this situation so inflammatory?
Why was Macklemore removed from Ed Sheeran’s tour?
To summarize for those who understandably need a flow chart to follow, Sheeran’s Loop Tour, which kicked off in the U.S. in June with rotating opening acts, added Macklemore, a longtime friend and collaborator of Sheeran’s, for his fall dates, which began earlier this month at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
At those shows, Macklemore, an avid and public defender of Palestine amid the conflict in Gaza, told the crowd he wanted to use the stadium platform to say something close to his heart, which was “Free Palestine.”
At the second show at the venue, Macklemore repeated the sentiment and added, “To all of my Jewish brothers and sisters: Criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you.”
On Sept. 7, two days after the MetLife concerts, the Israeli-American Council petitioned for Macklemore’s removal from the tour and said he was advancing a one-sided political agenda and using “biased and selective” imagery.
A week later, the tour’s promoter – Messina Touring Group – informed Macklemore that he was being removed from his remaining eight dates on the tour because they’d been notified by venues “that they will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup,” according to a statement from MTG.
In his response to his ejection from the tour, Macklemore called out Kraft as the architect behind the pressure campaign.
Kraft confirmed his involvement and said that because of Macklemore’s “broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community,” he would not allow him to play at Gillette Stadium.
Sheeran, a friend of Kraft’s who performed at his 2022 wedding, played his first U.S. stadium show at Gillette in 2015 and broke an attendance record there during his 2023 Mathematics Tour, released a statement that noted Macklemore’s contract for the tour “was with the promoter, not me.”
That is not shirking blame. That is a fact of any tour.
But the fallout continued, with Lukas Graham and Aaron Rowe, who had been tapped as Macklemore’s replacement, as well Finneas – who was slated for South American dates later this year – dropping off the tour in support of Macklemore. As well, the Irish band Beoga, who join Sheeran on stage for a handful of songs, also defected.
Macklemore using the stage to support Palestine isn’t a surprise
Macklemore has never wavered in his vocal support of Palestine. He regularly posts calls for activism on his socials, released the protest song “Hind’s Hall” about the war in Gaza, and performed at a 2024 Seattle benefit concert called Palestine Will Live Forever (during which he said “(expletive) America” on stage, then apologized for saying it). On Wednesday, Macklemore announced he would donate the $1 million earned from the two shows he played with Sheeran to six organizations that support Palestinians – and invited Kraft to match his donation.
Sheeran is typically apolitical, a perennial nice guy as well as an international superstar. While he has shown support for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, signed a letter urging Congress to pass the Equality Act and participated in the Love Music Hate Racism campaign, he is not a Springsteen, U2, Ted Nugent or, deep breath, Ye – musicians who embrace political discourse as part of their identity.
Both Macklemore and Sheeran are staying true to their convictions. Yet the outcry from some fans and celebrities (Pink, Hannah Einbinder, Roger Waters) seems to demand unwavering support for one and demonization of the other.
Adding to the convoluted discourse, if artists use a stage or record to spout controversial (read: political) opinions, the response is often jeers of “shut up and sing.” But when Sheeran opts to do just that, he’s labeled by some as a spineless coward.
Perhaps it’s time to pick a lane rather than selective examples to forward a narrative.
Ed Sheeran is in an impossible position
While only Sheeran can answer why he picked Macklemore, whose last album released in 2023 and biggest hit (“Thrift Shop”) in 2012, to open some shows while knowing he might conflict with Sheeran’s nonpartisan approach, he likely didn’t figure it would spiral into a PR crisis. Sheeran also likely didn’t figure that the power of an NFL owner would trump the First Amendment, but, as Kraft owns the building, it is his right to bar anyone. (Along with Gillette, MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and Hard Rock Stadium in Miami are among the only privately funded stadiums.)
Sheeran, though, has been put in a no-win position.
His tour resumes Sept. 19 in Philadelphia with dates scheduled in the U.S. through November.
If he canceled those shows in protest of the promoter removing Macklemore from the tour, he’d anger hundreds of thousands of devotees who purchased tickets to see him, the headliner, the guy bringing in an average of 35,000 fans per show. Not to mention leave every person who works on the tour or whose job is impacted by it in a lurch.
But by continuing the tour as planned, Sheeran is being targeted as the villain in the whole messy scene.
It’s unfair to both artists that the freedom to speak their truths has been endangered by the wealthy and politically powerful. If this slippery slope indicates the future, prepare for an uprising.