Macklemore says he was removed from Ed Sheeran tour over 'Free Palestine' remarks
Macklemore says Ed Sheeran has removed him from Sheeran's United States tour after venues threatened to cancel shows over his pro-Palestine remarks on stage.
The account comes from Macklemore himself, in comments reported by Pitchfork on 14 September 2026. He said Sheeran told him that objections had been raised to his use of the phrase “Free Palestine” during his two previous dates as support act, the performer who plays before the headliner.
Macklemore said he has been speaking in support of Palestine on stage for almost three years. He publicly defended the “Free Palestine” call after criticism of his place on the tour, an earlier dispute reported by the BBC on 8 September.
He accused Robert Kraft, the owner of Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, of threatening to pull Sheeran’s concerts at the venue unless he was removed. Macklemore further claimed that Kraft encouraged owners of other venues on the tour to take the same position, and that this pressure led Sheeran’s team and Messina Touring Group, the tour’s promoter, to drop him from the bill.
Messina Touring Group said Macklemore was dropped “after discussions with stakeholders.” A representative for the company also confirmed to Pitchfork that multiple tour venues had said they would “not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup.”
Sheeran had faced public calls to remove Macklemore before the decision. The Israeli-American Council circulated a petition urging Sheeran not to allow his stage to be used to “divide people or spread one-sided political propaganda,” as reported by the Jewish Journal on 10 September.
The dates at the centre of the claim include Sheeran’s LOOP Tour stop at Gillette Stadium on 25 and 26 September 2026. Those dates were announced in a statement on Sheeran’s Facebook page on 7 September.
For fans, this means the support slot on the remaining US dates is in question. Neither Sheeran’s next line-up nor any change to the advertised stadium dates has been confirmed in the latest reporting.
