Macklemore said he will donate $1 million to organizations supporting Palestinians, and encouraged Robert Kraft “to match” after the billionaire New England Patriots owner allegedly led a pressure campaign to force the Seattle rapper off of Ed Sheeran’s tour.
In a statement shared Wednesday — after two days of coverage about not only Macklemore’s ouster, but the subsequent exit of all of Sheeran’s opening acts — Macklemore said he wanted to “bring the conversation back” to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank “who are still being killed, still living under military occupation, and still fighting for their freedom.” He said he would donate the full $1 million of his net earnings from Sheeran’s Loop Tour to six organizations, and invited Kraft to match.
“Whatever we disagree about, perhaps we can agree on this: Palestinian lives are worth protecting,” he wrote. “A Palestinian life is no less valuable than any other life on this earth.” (A rep for Kraft did not immediately return a request for comment.)
The six organizations Macklemore will be donating to are: the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, HEAL Palestine, Gaza Soup Kitchen, Medical Aid for Palestinians, the United Nations Relief Work Agency USA, and Anera.
“I want to center the parents carrying their children into hospitals without the basic resources to treat them, and the physicians, paramedics, journalists and aid workers who keep going back in,” Macklemore wrote. “I want to center the organizers and activists who have paid real costs for standing with Palestine. Their risk is of a far different order than mine.”
Macklemore went on to say that cutting a check was “one of the least costly forms of solidarity available” to him, and that he was doing it because he could and because “these organizations are doing the work while much of the world debates it.”
He also stressed that “aid alone cannot address the conditions that make it necessary.” He called the devastation in Gaza and the occupation in the West Bank “a manmade injustice” that “requires immediate political change. Palestinians have lived for decades without basic rights and should not have to wait another day to be free.”
On Monday, the company promoting Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour announced that Macklemore would be leaving the tour after several venues told Sheeran they would not allow gigs to take place if the Seattle rapper was still on the bill. This came after pro-Israel groups criticized Macklemore’s performance at MetLife Stadium earlier this month, where he expressed solidarity with Palestinians, shouted “Free Palestine,” and shared images of the destruction from Israel’s war in Gaza.
Macklemore subsequently claimed that Kraft led the efforts to remove him from the tour. The Patriots owner allegedly told Sheeran the rapper wouldn’t be allowed to perform at Gillette Stadium, then “rallied” some of the other stadium owners to present Sheeran with an ultimatum: “Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.”
Kraft, for his part, confirmed he would not let Macklemore perform at Gillette, saying the decision was based on the rapper’s “recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran’s shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community.” He did not address Macklemore’s claim that he also “rallied” the other stadium owners.
Sheeran, in his own statement, said he spent the week “trying to build bridges” and “find a solution,” but was “unable to do so.” Nevertheless, the other openers on the North American leg of the Loop Tour — Lukas Graham and Aaron Rowe — dropped out in protest of the way Macklemore was ousted. Beoga, a traditional Irish folk band who’d been performing a set of songs with Sheeran at each show, also withdrew from the tour. And Finneas pulled out from the upcoming South American leg of the trek. Numerous artists and politicians have since voiced their support for Macklemore and criticized Kraft.
As of today, Sheeran’s Loop Tour is still slated to continue, with the next show scheduled for Sept. 19 in Philadelphia.
