Macklemore, the indie rapper who was kicked off Ed Sheeran’s stadium tour over his pro-Palestine statement, and for accusing Israel of a genocide, has booked his own outing devoted to the cause.
The Free Palestine Tour, which Macklemore announced on social media on Thursday, is to travel to Dublin, Paris and London in October. It is labeled “Macklemore and Friends,” and in a statement the rapper said he had “spent the last week reaching out to artists who have shown up and used their stages to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, regardless of the consequences,” though no additional names were announced.
“If these last couple of weeks have shown us anything, it’s that something has shifted over the last three years,” Macklemore said in his statement. “There has been a collective awakening around Palestinian liberation, the power of billionaires that try to censor that call, and what we expect from artists right now.”
The controversy over Macklemore and the Sheeran tour has thrust the Israel-Hamas war into the pop music world.
Macklemore — whose songs “Thrift Shop” and “Same Love,” released with his former producer Ryan Lewis, were indie phenoms in the early 2010s — came under intense criticism early this month after he said “Free Palestine” in his opening slots at two dates of Sheeran’s tour at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. He also showed his music video for “Hind’s Hall,” a protest song against Israel’s military response to the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, which showed scenes of devastation in Gaza.
Macklemore’s accusation of genocide drew condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League, which accused him of “engaging in antisemitic rhetoric and behavior,” and the Israeli-American Council, which circulated a petition calling on Sheeran to remove him from the tour.
Robert Kraft, whose company owns the New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium outside Boston, said that Macklemore’s comments crossed a line into “hate speech” and confirmed in a statement that he decided Macklemore could not play at Gillette.
Last week, Sheeran said the decision to remove Macklemore was “not mine,” adding that it had been made by his promoter and the venues that had booked the tour. Within hours of his statement, every other musician associated with his tour — including opening acts like Finneas and Beoga, an Irish folk group that backed Sheeran for part of his set — quit in solidarity with Macklemore, and expressed their support for the Palestinian cause.
Critics of Macklemore also pointed to an episode from 2014 when Macklemore went onstage in a “Jewish caricature” costume, with a hooked nose, hat and fake beard. He apologized for it at the time, saying, “I respect all cultures and all people.”
After facing what Sheeran called pressure to cancel his Loop Tour, he kept it on the road by himself. In Philadelphia last Saturday, the first show since the controversy erupted, Sheeran had no opening acts and — as he had on previous dates — performed most of the show entirely on his own, using guitar pedals to weave snippets of songs into full backing tracks, though he brought out a new group of musicians for a few tracks to replace Beoga.
Before the show began, Sheeran acknowledged making “mistakes” in how he had handled the situation. “I’ve tried in my career to not be a political commentator of any kind because I want my music and shows to be about unity, not division, about humanity, not politics,” Sheeran said.
A spokeswoman for Macklemore said that artists for his tour, and future dates, including in the United States, would be announced soon.
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