Macklemore has responded after being dropped as the opener from the remaining dates of Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour following his onstage comments supporting a Palestinian state.
The Thrift Shop rapper took to Instagram after Sheeran’s tour promoter issued a statement to Rolling Stone on Monday, alleging that venues on the U.S. tour told the company they would “not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup.”
“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. After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates,” Messina Touring Group, promoter of the U.S. leg of Sheeran’s Loop Tour, told the outlet.
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In response, Macklemore wrote, “I’m not sure how to start this. So I’m going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have more the decision to remove me from The Loop tour.”
“But before I get into it, 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. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don’t lose sight of that,” Macklemore continued.
“Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues,” he added.
Global News has reached out to Kraft’s representatives for further comment, but has not received a response.
The Can’t Hold Us rapper said that Sheeran, who he said is like a “brother” to him, was “in a f—ed up position.”
“He knew it. His typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before. He told me that the words ‘Free Palestine’ and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with. I told him that if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood. But he couldn’t get past his public facing, ‘I don’t take sides,’” Macklemore wrote.
“And I get why people don’t. Taking a side can cost you. Money, brand deals, sponsorships, festivals, private shows, relationships and access. I’ve lost all of those things. But there is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed. When one side has the bombs and bottomless financial and military support from America, refusing to take a side doesn’t leave you in the middle,” he continued.
Macklemore went on to say that what he said onstage during the MetLife concert on Sept. 4 is what he has “been saying on stages around the world for almost three years.”
“So why is it an issue now? Because now I’m sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America. At a certain level of exposure, ‘Free Palestine’ becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing shows, saying ‘Free Palestine,’ with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that’s why this time it became so important to silence me,” the 43-year-old rapper wrote.
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Macklemore said that he hopes this isn’t “the end of my relationship with Ed.”
“Thirteen years of friendship doesn’t disappear because of one painful disagreement. 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,” he added.
The rapper said that he didn’t need 10 shows from Sheeran.
“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,” Macklemore wrote.
Global News has reached out to Sheeran’s representative for comment, but has not received a response.
Macklemore first faced backlash after his onstage comments during his Sept. 4 set at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, where he said “free Palestine” before performing his protest song Hind’s Hall, about pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Columbia.
“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,” he said in his speech. “My message is for peace; love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect and equality. So I say free Palestine, I say free Lebanon, I say free Cuba, I say free Congo, free Sudan, free all people in America living in fear of this terrorist organization, ICE. None of us will be free until we are all free.”
The Israeli-American Council launched a petition following Macklemore’s comments, calling for Sheeran to remove him from the tour.
“This was an Ed Sheeran concert – not a political rally, not a protest, and not an activist event. The issue is not whether Macklemore has the right to hold political views. The question is where the line should be drawn when an opening act uses a global concert platform to advance a one-sided political agenda,” the petition reads.