From Billboard · Hannah Dailey · · 2m
Macklemore breaks his silence on losing the Sheeran tour
Dropped from Ed Sheeran's stadium run over a "Free Palestine" chant, Macklemore says he'd make the same call again.
In brief
Dropped from Ed Sheeran's stadium run over a "Free Palestine" chant, Macklemore says he'd make the same call again. Macklemore refused to trade two stadium stages for silence, and says the loss put the conversation back where he wanted it. Originally reported by Billboard.
Dropped from the tour
Macklemore posted a long Instagram statement after news broke Monday that he is off the U.S. leg of Ed Sheeran's Loop Tour, following his onstage calls for a free Palestine.
Nobody here is a victim
He opened by refusing the martyr framing for himself, Sheeran, or Pink. All three, he wrote, have money, safety, and a home to return to.
“The victims are the Palestinian people.”
Thirteen years of friendship
He called Sheeran a brother and said none of what he wrote came from spite. But he told Sheeran on the phone that friendship could not stop him from telling the truth.
“Our friendship can't change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened.”
A stadium owner's ultimatum
Per Macklemore, Sheeran said Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft called to bar him from the Foxborough dates, then rallied other stadium owners with a warning: keep Macklemore, lose the venues.
Sheeran's impossible spot
Sheeran's usual no-sides posture cracked under the pressure. He told Macklemore the words and the Palestinian flag hurt people he had spoken with.
“Ed was in a f, ked up position. He knew it.”
No neutral ground
Macklemore said he understood the worry but could not accept it. If the phrase offends more than the killing of Palestinian children, he argued, the disconnect is not his.
“There is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed.”
Antisemitism is real
He drew a line between hatred of Jewish people and criticism of a state. Collapsing the two, he said, shields Israel from accountability rather than protecting anyone.
“It doesn't protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability.”
He only needed two shows
Ten dates were never the point. He wanted the Foxborough nights to say two words in front of 90,000 people.
“If those words cost me the stage, while turning the conversation back to Palestine, then it was the most successful tour I've ever been on.”
The backlash that built
His Sept. 4 and 5 speeches at MetLife drew a petition from the Israeli-American Council and a public rebuke from Pink. Promoter Messina Touring Group said venues would not host the show with him on the bill.
What matters most
Macklemore refused to trade two stadium stages for silence, and says the loss put the conversation back where he wanted it.
