By Mary-Simone Collazo
Correspondent
Macklemore gave a controversial performance, and about two weeks later, the Internet turned against Ed Sheeran.
Rapper Macklemore joined Sheeran’s Loop Tour as an opening act on the evening of Sept. 4, in East Rutherford, New Jersey, at MetLife Stadium, home of the New York Giants and New York Jets. During his set, Macklemore stated that one reason he wanted to perform on this tour was to advocate for the people of Palestine.
He introduced his protest song “Hind’s Hall,” inspired by the over 100 students arrested at Columbia University for protesting the school’s ties with Israel on Apr. 29, 2024.
Exactly three months prior, Hind Rajab, a 5-year-old Palestinian girl, and her family were killed by the Israel Defense Forces. The Columbia University protest was held in the academic building Hamilton Hall, which the students renamed Hind’s Hall, in honor of Rajab.
“The people all the way in Gaza to the occupied West Bank…we have not forgotten about them. I say Free Palestine,” Macklemore said on stage, before performing “Hind’s Hall” while images from Gaza played on screen.
Robert Kraft, Gillette Stadium and New England Patriots owner, is a friend of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and told Sheeran that he and several other National Football League stadium owners would not host the Loop Tour if Macklemore stayed.
Macklemore opened the concert again the next night on Sept. 5, emulating the same speech and performance, but this time also addressed “Jewish brothers and sisters” in the audience. He clarified he is against the actions of Israel’s government, not Jewish people as a group.
Jewish pop-rock singer Pink made an Instagram post on Sept. 11, after reposting online content criticizing Macklemore’s actions.
“...in 2014…Macklemore put on a hooked nose, a black beard and a bowl cut, performed in it, and called it a ‘random costume.’ Every Jew I know knew exactly what it was…Then last weekend he stood in front of a stadium full of music-loving families, with violent images from a war on the screens…and then took the mic to tell all of the Jews in the stadium that it wasn't about them,” she said, her caption continuing in the comments of the post.
In May 2014, Macklemore performed at a secret concert in Seattle, Washington, wearing a fake nose, wig and beard as a disguise. He faced accusations of anti-Semitism for the costume looking like a “Jewish caricature.”
“There is no worse feeling than being misunderstood, especially when people are hurt or offended…I respect all cultures and all people,” he apologized on his website the following week, though it is no longer there.
On Sept. 14, 2026, Messina Touring Group, Sheeran’s promotion team, released a public statement to Rolling Stone that Macklemore had been removed from the tour. “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,” Messina said.
Macklemore posted a statement on Instagram the same day. He said he, Sheeran and Pink are not victims, and the real victims are the Palestinian people. He then called Sheeran his friend, and shared that they had difficult conversations the past week.
“But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can’t change my responsibility to tell the truth about what’s happened,” he said in the post.
In a statement to ESPN later that day, Kraft confirmed he did not want Macklemore in Gillette Stadium, because of “[Macklemore’s] broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community.”
Sheeran responded the next day, in bullet points, saying he is “appalled” by the violence in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and let Macklemore perform because he allows his opening acts to make their own setlists. He explained that Macklemore’s removal from the tour was his promoter’s decision, not his. He also stated that he does not use his platform for politics. Several fans called him a hypocrite, as Sheeran hosted a charity concert for Ukraine in 2022 after the Russia-Ukraine War started.
“I have spent this week trying to build bridges, to find a solution, and unfortunately, I was unable to do so,” Sheeran concluded.
Social media users criticized Sheeran, a popular joke being “When your spine doesn't work like it used to before, ” a play on the opening line of Sheeran’s 2014 hit “Thinking Out Loud.”
Following Sheeran’s statement, all of the Loop Tour’s opening acts dropped out. Danish band Lukas Graham, Irish singer Aaron Rowe, and American artist Finneas, said on social media that they stand by Macklemore and Palestine. Sheeran’s band, Beoga, also left the tour.
“We have made the decision to depart as Ed Sheeran’s band on the remaining US Loop tour, following the silencing of Macklemore by zionist lobbies. We are a traditional Irish band…We believe in dialogue as a means of progressing the plight of the Palestinian people,” the band put in an Instagram statement. The five members of Beoga are founding members of the activist group Irish Artists for Palestine.
On Sept. 16, Macklemore announced he is donating the entire 1 million dollars he earned from Loop Tour to various Palestinian organizations, and invited Kraft to match it. Kraft replied, in a statement on the Gillette social media accounts, that he will be matching Sheeran’s future $2 million donation “to fight this humanitarian crisis.” He did not specify what organizations the money will go to.
On Sept. 19, a crowd of over 100 protesters gathered outside Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, arranged by The Philly Palestine Coalition, hours before Sheeran’s next show.
Before he started his set, Sheeran tearfully took the mic and discussed the events of the past week. He explained how it was “one of the worst weeks of his life”, and mentioned how he is “deeply worried” about how venues can now pre-approve the songs musicians will perform—raising the issue of free speech at concerts. He then directly mentioned the Israel-Palestine conflict.
“What happened in Israel at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate…I am…listening and learning because I do not know enough,” he said.
He spoke about unity before starting the first song. “...everyone is welcome and everyone here can stand beside people…that don't agree on everything, but they can all agree on singing these songs,” said Sheeran.
While fans cheered in the arena, spectators online across the political spectrum deemed Sheeran’s responses insufficient. British conservative commentator Piers Morgan, said on X, “...I wish he hadn’t bowed to the mob and felt forced to say it publicly, especially reading it off an autocue like some bullied puppet.”
American Jewish liberal commentator Matt Bernstein also stated on X, “I could forgive Ed Sheeran for making bad music, but I cannot forgive him for being a f—ing coward.”
