Just days before Ed Sheeran’s concert on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field, rapper Macklemore was dropped over pro-Palestine comments. Following that, several of Sheeran’s supporting acts have quit in support of Macklemore.
Aaron Rowe, Finneas, Lukas Graham, and Sheeran’s backing band, Beoga, have all announced they were dropping out of the tour, Deadline reported. Lincoln Financial Field officials didn’t immediately return a phone call for comment on what this might mean for this weekend’s concert.
Macklemore, a Grammy winner, joined the tour earlier this month and was slated to open for Sheeran on eight of his last 10 shows on the U.S. leg of the tour.
According to Rolling Stone, Macklemore was dropped because of the rapper’s pro-Palestine statements at two shows at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., earlier this month.
On Sept. 4, Macklemore performed his 2024 protest song, “Hind’s Hall,” about pro-Palestine demonstrators at Columbia University and chanted “Free Palestine” while a screen behind him showed footage from the war in Gaza.
On Tuesday, Sheeran issued a statement on Instagram, writing that he was in contact last week with venue owners, promoters, and activists to “find a mutual resolution for all.”
While he respects Macklemore’s “strength of purpose to stand up and shout for what he believes,” Sheeran said he was unable to “build bridges” with venue owners and promoters because of the way the rapper “conveyed part of his message” during his two New Jersey shows.
Messina Touring Group, the promotional team behind the U.S. leg of Sheeran’s tour, told Rolling Stone that several venues “will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup.” That list of venues includes Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.; Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium; Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium; Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C.; AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas; Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla.; and the South Philadelphia venue.
Not removing Macklemore from the lineup, Messina representatives said, would “result in the cancellation of the tour and impact hundreds of thousands of fans.”
Lincoln Financial Field representatives did not respond to requests for comment from The Inquirer at the time of publishing.
“What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years,” Macklemore wrote in a social media post on Monday. “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.”
The rapper wrote that he was dropped from the tour after Sheeran, whom he called a friend, received a call from Robert Kraft, the owner of the NFL’s New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium.
“Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave [Sheeran] an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues,” the post reads.
“I agree with Macklemore,” Kraft said in a statement obtained by USA Today Sports, in which he acknowledged his decision that Macklemore’s “participation in the September 25th and 26th concerts at Gillette Stadium would cross that line.”
Kraft also wrote: “Too many lives have been lost and there has been too much suffering, but only sharing selective information and ignoring the actions of Hamas is not honest and only advances more divisiveness and hate.”
Macklemore’s shows at MetLife spurred backlash from pro-Israel groups like StopAntisemitism. In a social media post, the group accused Macklemore of spreading “anti‑Israel propaganda,” an assertion that was amplified by Bucks County-bred pop star Pink.
“A repost isn’t a statement,” Pink clarified in an Instagram post, adding that she didn’t object to Macklemore’s “Free Palestine” chants, and said that she believes that “Palestinians deserve a future that honors their humanity and their aspirations.”
“I have never asked for another artist to be silenced and I’m not asking now. I don’t need anyone fired, and I don’t need a refund,” she said. “What I need is to be able to say, as a Jewish mom, ‘that scared me, and it scared people I love,’ without being told our fear is just propaganda, and without being told I’m somehow cool with genocide because I noticed?” she wrote. She also pointed to her “decade as a UNICEF ambassador” during which she worked for “kids who didn’t choose the country or the war they were born into.”
The Israeli American Council also launched a petition, demanding that Macklemore be removed from the tour.
Despite one “painful disagreement, Macklemore contends that he will remain friends with Sheeran and understands his position. “Taking a side can cost you. Money, brand deals, sponsorships, festivals, private shows, relationships and access. I’ve lost all of those things,” Macklemore wrote in his social media post.
The North American leg of the “Loop Tour” wraps up at Raymond James Stadium on Nov. 7. A South American leg of the tour will follow in November and December.
An earlier version of this article misstated the day of Ed Sheeran’s concert. It is on Saturday, Sept. 19.
