Macklemore claims he was forced off Ed Sheeran’s tour after Sheeran was pressured by billionaire and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft following the Seattle rapper’s onstage calls for a “free Palestine.”
In a statement shared on Instagram, Macklemore claimed that Kraft called Sheeran ahead of Sheeran’s upcoming show at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is owned by the Kraft Group. “Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium,” Macklemore wrote. “Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.”
Macklemore’s claim echoed an original statement released by Messina Touring Group, promoter of the U.S. leg of Sheeran’s tour. Though the company did not specifically name Kraft, or any other venue or owner, it said, “we have been notified by venues on the upcoming U.S. tour dates that they will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup, which would result in the cancellation of the tour and impact hundreds of thousands of fans.”
Reps for Sheeran, Kraft, and the Kraft Group did not immediately return requests for comment.
Kraft, who is Jewish, is a strong supporter of Israel and Jewish causes, having donated millions of dollars to them over the years while also organizing numerous trips to Israel with current and former NFL players. In 2019, he founded the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, and in 2025 launched the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate meant to “inspire Americans to stand up to Jewish hate and all hate.” (The Blue Square Alliance website and Instagram features a photo of Sheeran with a blue square pinned to his guitar strap.)
The uproar over Macklemore and his inclusion on Sheeran’s tour came after the Seattle rapper joined the trek in early September for two shows at MetLife Stadium outside of New York City. At the first gig, Macklemore yelled “Free Palestine”; expressed solidarity with people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank; showed images from the devastation in Gaza; and performed his protest song, “Hind’s Hall,” about pro-Palestine demonstrators at Columbia University. In response, pro-Israel groups fiercely criticized Macklemore, with the Israeli American Council launching a petition demanding Sheeran remove Macklemore from the rest of the tour.
In his statement, Macklemore called Sheeran a “friend” and described the “difficult conversations” they’ve had over the past week as “rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement.” He said his statement was not written “out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can’t change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened.”
Following Kraft’s alleged pressure campaign, Macklemore acknowledged that Sheeran “was in a fucked up position,” adding: “His typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before. He told me that the words ‘Free Palestine’ and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with. I told him that if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood. But he couldn’t get past his public facing, ‘I don’t take sides.’”
While Macklemore argued there were financial and professional costs for speaking out in support of Palestinians, he added, “There is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed. When one side has the bombs and bottomless financial and military support from America, refusing to take a side doesn’t leave you in the middle.”
The rapper also pushed back against the argument that expressing support for Palestinians and criticizing Israel and its actions in Gaza and the West Bank is antisemitic. “Antisemitism is real,” he wrote. “And that is exactly why the word matters to much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying ‘Free Palestine’ gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn’t protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability.”
Elsewhere, Macklemore insisted neither he nor Sheeran were victims in this situation and stressed his desire to keep the focus on the Palestinian people who “have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence.”
He later said that the controversy was ultimately “so small when held against what we are actually witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank. An entire people being displaced, starved and killed while the world debates which words we are allowed to use to describe it, how those words make us feel, and whether our discomfort matters more than the people living through a genocide.” (Humanitarian groups and a United Nations commission have said Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a genocide. Israel and its allies, including the United States, have denied this.)
Of being dropped from the tour, Macklemore said, “I didn’t need 10 shows from Ed. I needed 2. Two chances to stand in front of 90,000 people and say the words that somehow became too dangerous to say. Free Palestine. But 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.”
