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Macklemore Dropped from Ed Sheeran Tour Over Pro-Palestine Rants

9 sources · updated 2026-09-15
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What happened

Macklemore (Benjamin Haggerty) was removed as opening act from the remaining U.S. dates of Ed Sheeran's Loop Tour after two September 4–5 performances at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where he led "Free Palestine" chants, performed his song "Hind's Hall" while images from Gaza played on stadium screens, and told Jewish attendees that criticism of Israel was not criticism of them. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, whose Kraft Group owns Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, said Macklemore would not be permitted to perform there, citing those remarks and "a broader history of rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community." Tour promoter Messina Touring Group said multiple venues would not allow a concert with Macklemore on the lineup, which would cancel the tour and affect hundreds of thousands of fans, and that after discussions with stakeholders he would not perform remaining support dates. Macklemore wrote that Sheeran told him Kraft had "rallied some of the other stadium owners" with an ultimatum that Sheeran could not play their venues if Macklemore stayed, and that conversations between the two ended in "fundamental disagreement." Singer Pink, who is Jewish, wrote that Macklemore had put "violent images" from a war on screens in a stadium of families and then told Jews in the audience "it wasn't about them."
Sourcing check · Fully on the record · 9 articles

9 of 9 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.

What these terms mean and how they're counted
On the record · names a source 9 of 9
On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Macklemore, Robert Kraft, Ed Sheeran, StopAntisemitism, Israeli-American Council and Messina Touring Group
Primary evidence · cites a document or data 0 of 9
Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: None cited.
Credits another outlet 2 of 9
The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Rolling Stone, TMZ
Unnamed sources 0 of 9
The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
How it developed
When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Sep 14, 12:38 UTC by Daily Wire, naming its source.
Not counted 0
Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out

Unpacked

Left-leaning coverage casts the ouster as a Kraft-run boycott over Palestinian advocacy and never says how much of the remaining tour already sat in stadiums that had refused him, so the story reads as one owner silencing a cause. NBC News leads with Macklemore's account that Kraft rallied owners into an ultimatum. Fox News reports that eight remaining stops were NFL stadiums. Readers who only get the boycott frame miss that the promoter's problem was a blocked map of football venues, not a single Massachusetts veto. Right-leaning coverage at Daily Wire called the MetLife performance a "Pro-Islamic Terrorist Rant." Left-leaning coverage at NBC News described it as "remarks in support of Palestinians." Has any stadium owner besides Kraft stated a reason, or confirmed being rallied by him?
Bottom line

NBC News never gave the Fox News count that eight remaining Sheeran dates were NFL stadiums, so Kraft's alleged boycott had to carry the whole explanation for why Macklemore left the tour.

The receipts — 3 facts one side's coverage lacks
  • Eight of the remaining 10 tour stops were scheduled for NFL stadiums numberin Fox News · absent from left-leaning coverage
  • More than 73,000 people in Gaza have died in Israel's military campaign, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry numberin NBC News, BBC · absent from right-leaning coverage
  • Macklemore wore a keffiyeh on stage at MetLife Stadium contextin Daily Wire, Fox News · absent from left-leaning coverage
The Left View
Left-leaning sources frame the ouster as stadium owners, led by Kraft, punishing Palestinian advocacy rather than answering hate speech. They center Macklemore's account that Sheeran, a friend in a "fucked up position," could not move past remaining an apolitical public figure after being told that "Free Palestine" and Palestinian flags were "hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with," and Macklemore's reply that if those words were "more offensive than the tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect." NBC News and BBC report his argument that conflating criticism of Israel, opposing Zionism, or saying "Free Palestine" with hatred of Jews "doesn't protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability," and that "there is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed." They quote Rep. Pramila Jayapal calling it "incredibly disappointing" that "powerful people are more upset about what an artist says than the displacement, starvation, and killing of innocent Palestinian children and families," and children's creator Ms. Rachel saying Sheeran "caved to people who refuse to accept" that "a genocide is happening in Gaza," citing a United Nations commission finding that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, which Israeli officials called "distorted and false." Macklemore said he is not a victim and that if two stadium shows turned conversation back to Palestine, "it was the most successful tour I've ever been on."
The Right View
Right-leaning sources frame Macklemore as a faded act who hijacked a pop concert with what the Daily Wire called a "Pro-Islamic Terrorist Rant" and "Islamist propaganda," and what Breitbart called "unhinged" anti-Israel and "pro-Hamas tirades" that ticket-buyers did not come to hear. They stress that this was "an Ed Sheeran concert — not a political rally," citing an Israeli-American Council petition and StopAntisemitism's charge that Jewish fans were "ambushed" by "anti-Israel propaganda," and they treat Kraft's refusal as a venue declining to "provide a platform for hate speech." Fox News and others revive his 2014 stage costume — a black wig, beard, and prosthetic hooked nose — that the Anti-Defamation League condemned as resembling antisemitic caricatures. They highlight Pink's line that Jews do not get told the message "wasn't about them" — "You don't get to decide that for us" — and Kraft's contention that "only sharing selective information and ignoring the actions of Hamas is not honest and only advances more divisiveness and hate." They present multi-venue refusals as a practical response to antisemitism and fan backlash that would otherwise have collapsed dates for hundreds of thousands of people, and as overdue given that, in the Daily Wire's telling, Macklemore had become "nothing more than an activist."
Our Take (balanced)
The left's strongest argument is that owners of major stadiums, including Kraft — a longtime Israel supporter who founded the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism — used control of venues to force an already-booked artist off a commercial tour for "Free Palestine" chants and Gaza imagery, which Macklemore treats as proof that accusations of antisemitism are being "weaponize[d]" to block accountability for Israel's campaign; that he had been openly pro-Palestinian for years, including with "Hind's Hall," weakens any claim that Sheeran was blindsided. The right's strongest argument is that a paid family stadium show is not an activist platform: leading political chants, screening war footage, and telling Jews in the crowd that the message was not about them produced documented objections from Pink and Jewish organizations, and private venues citing hate-speech policies plus the 2014 costume episode had a specific reason to refuse the act rather than eat cancelled dates. The central unresolved tension is whether those onstage words and images were political speech about Gaza that stadium power then punished, or a crossing into antisemitic or hate content that private owners were entitled to exclude — a line the two sides draw in fundamentally different places and do not share a test for.

9 sources

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