AOC criticises Robert Kraft after Macklemore is removed from Ed Sheeran tour
US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has accused New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft of coordinating stadium owners to silence speech after Macklemore was removed from Ed Sheeran's US tour.
Her comments were reported on 16 September, two days after Macklemore said he had been dropped over pro-Palestinian remarks on stage in New Jersey Rolling Stone.
Ocasio-Cortez said "when you see what Robert Kraft did to line up all of the stadiums to censor speech in that one specific way." She described the dispute as a matter of a handful of stadium owners and elites preventing discussion of Gaza. In her remarks she referred to "the genocide in Gaza."
Macklemore had joined Sheeran's Loop Tour in early September for two dates at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. At the first show, he shouted "Free Palestine," expressed solidarity with people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, and showed images of devastation from the war in Gaza. He also performed "Hind's Hall," his protest song about pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Columbia University.
The fallout was swift. The Israeli American Council launched a petition calling on Sheeran to remove Macklemore from the rest of the tour. Macklemore said on Monday 14 September that he had been dropped from the US stadium run after those remarks Reuters.
He said Sheeran told him Kraft would not allow him to perform at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Macklemore further claimed Sheeran told him Kraft had rallied other stadium owners to warn that Sheeran could not play their venues if Macklemore stayed on as support. That second claim rests on Macklemore's account of a private conversation.
Kraft has confirmed he barred Macklemore from Gillette Stadium. He pointed to material shared from the stage during Sheeran's New Jersey shows and what he described as a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery. Kraft has defended the decision, which effectively blocked Macklemore from continuing with Sheeran Variety.
After the removal, three other support acts withdrew from the tour: Finneas, Lukas Graham and Aaron Rowe. Their departures have left Sheeran's US stadium run without several of its billed opening performers.
