Protesters began gathering Saturday evening near Lincoln Financial Field in South Philadelphia ahead of Ed Sheeran’s first concert since Macklemore was dropped as an opener following the rapper’s pro-Palestinian remarks onstage.
Dozens of activists, some of whom carried Palestinian flags and signs that read “Gaza: Aid In Soldiers Out,” gathered near SEPTA’s NRG Station to decry Macklemore’s firing from the British singer-songwriter’s North American “Loop Tour,” calling the move an act of censorship. Since the “Thrift Shop” rapper was removed from the billing, several other supporting acts have quit in solidarity.
In a statement, Philadelphia’s Jewish Voice for Peace said the opposition to Macklemore’s removal — from the exodus of the other performers to plummeting resale ticket values and demonstrations outside the Linc — shows that “support for Palestinian liberation is growing daily.”
On Ticketmaster, tickets were reselling for as low as $32.25 hours before the 8 p.m. start time. On Friday afternoon, the least expensive ticket on the resale website had been $66.30.
Just after the concert was scheduled to begin, Sheeran addressed the controversy that has roiled his tour:
“I’ve had to take and make difficult decisions and I am making mistakes, and I am so, so sorry,” Sheeran said, adding that he’s never wanted to disappoint fans or be an “activist musician.” But, he said, he has been thrust into the middle of “important and passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet.”
Sheeran acknowledged the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, saying it was “horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain.” He also said what’s happening in Gaza is “catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate” and that the “systemic injustice we’re seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked.”
The singer reiterated that he wants his concerts to be a “safe space for everyone”: “This concert is still a place where everyone is welcome and everyone here can stand beside people that have opposing views, and everyone here can stand by people that they don’t agree with on everything, but they can all agree on singing these songs,” he said.
Outside, grassroots organizer Adi Chattopadhyay, a West Philly resident, said the purpose of the protest was meant to direct the attention back to the war in Gaza.
“Palestinians are very still under occupation,” Chattopadhyay said. “I’m here today to spread that message and tell people why Macklemore was saying ‘Free Palestine.’”
During shows earlier this month at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., while performing his 2024 protest song, “Hind’s Hall,” about pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Columbia University, Macklemore chanted “Free Palestine” and a screen behind him showed footage from the war in Gaza. In “Hind’s Hall” and in his statements to the crowd, Macklemore implied that he believes the conflict is a genocide.
Macklemore and Sheeran posted dueling Instagram statements this week. Macklemore said he had been fired after venues told the tour’s promoter they would prohibit the rapper from performing because of his comments. Sheeran said that venues threatened to “pull” forthcoming shows if Macklemore stayed on the billing because of how he “conveyed part of his message.” Those venues included the Linc, Rolling Stone reported.
Both performers attributed these statements to New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, whose Kraft Group also owns Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., where Sheeran’s “Loop Tour” is scheduled to stop later this month. Macklemore said Kraft “rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum.”
In a widely reported statement, Kraft, who is Jewish, confirmed he had Macklemore removed as an opening act because of his “recent actions,” material from the New Jersey shows, and “a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community.”
Gillette Stadium “[does] not provide a platform for hate speech,” the statement said, and Macklemore’s participation in the concert would “cross that line.”
To Saturday’s crowd, Sheeran said he was “deeply worried about the idea that venues could pre-approve content and performance,” adding that “it should never happen in the free world.”
Near the Linc, protester Jodi Rhoden criticized Kraft’s role in Macklemore’s firing.
“Even Ed Sheeran isn’t free of it,” she said. “He had to kick his buddy off his tour because Robert Kraft told him to, because of Israel.”
Nicholas McCarty came early to the concert. He said he is sympathetic to the protest but thinks it’s unfair to blame Sheeran for what happened.
“Robert Kraft pushing Ed Sheeran’s promoter to nuke his contract wasn’t on Ed Sheeran,” McCarty said.
McCarty said he is also a fan of Macklemore, and he’s disappointed he wouldn’t get a chance to see him Saturday.
“It would’ve been a whole different experience if Macklemore is here,” he said.
Others, including Bucks County-bred pop star Pink — who reposted social media posts critical of Macklemore’s performance — have cited a 2014 incident where Macklemore wore a costume with a false nose and beard that many saw as antisemitic. At the time, Macklemore said that was not his intention and apologized.
“More than once, Macklemore’s actions have demonstrated hostility toward the Jewish community,” Jason Holtzman, chief of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, said in a statement.
“‘Free Palestine’ means different things to different people,” his statement continued. “When the slogan comes from a stadium stage, from someone with this history, a Jewish person in the crowd has no way of knowing which meaning is intended. For Jewish concert goers, that ambiguity is deeply unsettling.”
In a social media post, Pink, who is Jewish, took issue with Macklemore showing “violent images” of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and “[telling] all of the Jews in the stadium that it wasn’t about them.”
“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 wrote. “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?”
Holtzman said Macklemore “remains free to express his views,” while private tour organizers and venues “are free to decide that his conduct is inconsistent with the environment they want to create for their audiences.”
The Linc is publicly owned by the City of Philadelphia.
On Thursday, the Philadelphia chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it had requested records through Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law to determine whether Kraft had communicated with Philadelphia or Linc officials about Macklemore’s performance.
It’s unknown what the request may yield, if anything. But Ahmet Tekelioglu, executive director of CAIR-Philadelphia, said in a statement that Philadelphians should know who made the decision and whether Macklemore’s pro-Palestinian stance was a factor.
“People are free to agree or disagree with Macklemore,” Tekelioglu’s statement said. “But when institutional power is used to remove an artist from a major Philadelphia stage following his political speech, transparency and accountability are reasonable expectations — especially given the public’s relationship to this stadium.”
Macklemore, who has long been outspoken about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, wrote on Instagram: “Taking a side can cost you. Money, brand deals, sponsorships, festivals, private shows, relationships and access. I’ve lost all of those things.”
Israeli-American artist Rami Even-Esh, who goes by the stage name Kosha Dillz, said pro-Palestinian protestors are using the Sheeran-Macklemore-fueled moment to address an issue they know little about.
“This should be about Palestinian and Israelis working together,” Even-Esh said. “Sheeran’s never been to Israel. I’ve never been to Nigeria. I’ve never been to Zimbabwe. Wouldn’t it be insane if I started commenting on everything on their politics, and leaving out other things?”
Sheeran’s other supporting acts, Finneas, Aaron Rowe, and Lukas Graham, and the Irish backing band Beoga, have also dropped out of the tour. The North American leg of the “Loop Tour” is scheduled to wrap up Nov. 7 in Tampa, Fla.
Terri Ammon, a decade-long Sheeran fan, was the first in line at one of the the concert gates. She’s not a fan of anyone else who was on the billing.
“I’m here for him,” she said, of Sheeran.
Ammon wasn’t paying attention to the protest or the Macklemore fallout, she said.
“We’re here to have a good time.”
This article contains information from the Associated Press.
