Macklemore's 'Free Palestine' message at Ed Sheeran shows draws removal petition

A pro-Palestinian speech and song delivered by the rapper Macklemore during two sold-out stadium shows opening for Ed Sheeran has drawn a formal removal petition from a Jewish advocacy group and a defiant public response from the performer, turning a routine tour-opener slot into the most closely watched dispute in American pop music this week.

Macklemore, wearing a keffiyeh, addressed the crowd at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on both Friday and Saturday nights during the opening stretch of Sheeran's Loop Tour's North American leg, telling the audience he wanted people in Gaza and the West Bank to know "they have not been forgotten" before performing his 2024 protest song "Hind's Hall" as images from Gaza played on the stadium's video screens. The remarks and performance, delivered to a crowd organizers put at more than 80,000 people, prompted the Israeli-American Council to launch a petition Sunday calling on Sheeran and tour organizers to drop Macklemore from the bill.

A stadium stage becomes a flashpoint

Macklemore has opened several dates on Sheeran's stadium run this year, a pairing of two artists with little overlapping political history until the MetLife shows. According to accounts of the performances, he told the crowd Friday that "one of the reasons why I wanted to come on this tour was because I wanted to stand up here in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: free Palestine," then returned to the theme Saturday, adding calls of "free Lebanon" and "free Cuba" before performing "Hind's Hall," a song named for the Columbia University building pro-Palestinian student protesters renamed in 2024 in honor of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old girl killed in Gaza. The petition that followed argues the objection is not to Macklemore's right to hold political views but to using a commercial concert stage most fans paid to hear love songs at for one-sided messaging.

Neither Sheeran nor his representatives have commented publicly on the performances or the petition, and the shows' promoters did not respond to reporters' inquiries, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency's reporting on the dispute. Macklemore went ahead with his second MetLife set as scheduled the night after the petition circulated, and as of Monday remained listed as an opener for the tour's remaining North American stops.

The numbers behind the dispute

The Israeli-American Council, which describes its mission on its official site as uniting, engaging and mobilizing the Jewish and Israeli community in the United States, launched the petition asking Sheeran's camp to remove Macklemore from what it counted as nine remaining Loop Tour dates, and calling on fans to contact the promoter, Live Nation, directly. Sheeran's own tour schedule, published on the Loop Tour's official North American site, shows the run continuing through mid-November with stops including Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field on September 19 and back-to-back nights at Gillette Stadium outside Boston on September 25 and 26 — all dates where the petition would apply if it succeeded.

The two MetLife shows themselves drew what organizers estimated at more than 80,000 attendees combined, making the venue and its screens, on which Gaza imagery appeared during "Hind's Hall," among the largest platforms Macklemore has used for the message since he began performing the song in 2024.

How the moment fits a longer pattern

Macklemore's advocacy did not begin at MetLife Stadium. He released "Hind's Hall" as a single in May 2024, amid a wave of campus protests over the war in Gaza, and was among more than 50 artists who signed an Artists4Ceasefire letter to the Biden administration in late 2023 calling for a permanent ceasefire. He has performed at pro-Palestinian rallies in Washington and elsewhere in the years since, making his position well established among fans and industry observers before he joined Sheeran's tour. What changed at MetLife Stadium was the audience: a Sheeran stadium crowd is drawn overwhelmingly for pop love songs rather than protest music, and the scale of the platform — a sold-out NFL stadium rather than a rally or his own headlining show — is what organizers behind the petition say crossed a line.

The dispute also arrives amid a broader run of friction between touring musicians and audiences over Israel-related messaging at concerts, a pattern that has recurred at festivals and stadium shows since the war in Gaza began in October 2023. Industry figures have repeatedly faced pressure from both directions — accused of silence by pro-Palestinian advocates and of politicizing entertainment by pro-Israel groups — with few clear precedents for how tour promoters should respond.

What each side is saying

Macklemore addressed the criticism directly from the stage and later on social media. "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 told the crowd Saturday, according to accounts carried by TheWrap's coverage of his remarks. He posted video of the speech to Instagram on Monday with the caption "wanting all humans to be treated equal should never be controversial."

"My message is for peace, love and for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect and equality."

The Israeli-American Council's petition, in turn, frames its objection as one of venue and consent rather than viewpoint. "This was an Ed Sheeran concert, not a political rally, not a protest, and not an activist event," the group wrote in the petition, according to Complex's report on the petition. Consequence's coverage of the fallout noted that the singer Pink amplified a post from the advocacy group StopAntisemitism calling the claims in Macklemore's set false and urging refunds for ticket holders, while the singer Boy George posted an altered image of Sheeran on Instagram and wrote on social media that he had "never been an Ed Sheeran fan" and that "nothing has changed." Neither Pink nor Boy George has performed on the tour; both were reacting from outside the show as fellow musicians.

Coverage of the speech and its aftermath, including the full text of Macklemore's Saturday remarks, was compiled in Stereogum's account of the controversy, which noted that Macklemore's Monday post came directly in response to the petition rather than as an apology or retraction.

What happens next

The petition had not, as of Monday evening, produced any public change to the tour lineup. Macklemore performed his second MetLife set as planned the night after the petition launched, and his name remains attached to the Loop Tour's remaining North American dates on Sheeran's official site, including shows later this month in Philadelphia and outside Boston. Sheeran, Live Nation and the tour's promoters have not issued statements addressing whether the onstage content was cleared in advance or whether any changes are planned for future stops, leaving open the question the Israeli-American Council posed directly to the tour: whether organizers will set limits on political messaging at future dates or let the remainder of the run proceed unchanged. Macklemore's team has likewise not indicated whether he intends to alter his opening sets, and no additional tour dates have been announced as affected since the petition began circulating.

The episode leaves unresolved a broader question that has followed touring musicians through two years of war-related protest at concerts: whether a stadium stage sold primarily on the strength of a headliner's music can also serve, without incident, as a platform for an opening act's political convictions. For now, both sides say they are watching the tour's next stops for an answer.