Macklemore Free Palestine Tour Announced After Sheeran Split

Macklemore announced a new concert run, the Macklemore Free Palestine Tour, on September 24, less than two weeks after his removal from Ed Sheeran's Loop Tour. The announcement, posted to social media, turns one of the year's most public music industry splits into a new concert run, with proceeds going to organizations supporting Palestinians.

The confirmed stops are Dublin's 3Arena on October 26, Paris's Accor Arena on October 29, and London's OVO Arena Wembley on October 30, according to Far Out Magazine. Macklemore said more U.S. dates and additional artists would be announced in the coming weeks, with presale tickets beginning September 28 and general sales starting September 30., and Macklemore joked in his announcement that his schedule had "freed up a bit" since the split.

How the split started

The split traces back to Macklemore's opening sets at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on September 4 and 5, where he led the crowd in a "Free Palestine" chant and performed his protest track "Hind's Hall," according to an explainer by Daily News Standard. On September 14, Macklemore said he had been pulled from the remaining U.S. dates of the Loop Tour.

Macklemore pointed the finger at New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who owns Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, saying Kraft rallied other stadium owners and warned Sheeran that the tour could not go ahead with the rapper on the bill. Sheeran said the decision came from the tour's promoter and venues, not from him personally.

The fallout spread beyond the two headliners. Four supporting acts, including Finneas, Lukas Graham and Aaron Rowe, withdrew from the tour, and Sheeran's backing band Beoga also pulled out, according to Mixmag. Sheeran addressed the controversy during his September 19 show in Philadelphia, apologizing to fans and admitting he had made mistakes. In the same speech, Mixmag reported, he called the suffering in Gaza "catastrophic and unjustifiable."

The feud that lived online

Much of the drama unfolded on social media, where it became one of the most followed celebrity splits of the year. Pink reshared commentary from StopAntisemitism accusing Macklemore of spreading "anti-Israel propaganda," according to Daily News Standard, and added in her own Instagram statement that a repost is not a statement and a meme is not a spine.

Sheeran's audience numbers took a visible hit. Data from Social Blade, reported by The Independent, showed him losing nearly half a million Instagram followers in about a week, with his following standing at 47.2 million as of September 24.

The internet answered with satire. Musician Jonathan Mann released a free browser game called Super Macklemore 64 on September 17, in which a Macklemore character dodges a giant Sheeran avatar and smaller Robert Kraft figures while gathering other musicians. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Mann said he wanted the game to reflect the absurdity of the situation and to redirect attention toward Gaza. The game, which also includes Irish band Kneecap as a character, carries a donation link for Gaza Soup Kitchen.

What the new tour will look like

In his announcement, Macklemore said the past three years had produced what he described as a collective awakening around Palestinian liberation, and argued that artists could no longer stay silent about the issue. He said he had spent the previous week reaching out to artists who had used their stages in solidarity with Palestinians, and that more of them would join the lineup.

The beneficiary list covers a dozen organizations, including Anera, Glia, Gaza Soup Kitchen, Taawon, HEAL Palestine, the Palestinian Youth Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace and UNRWA USA, according to Far Out Magazine. Page Six reported that Macklemore wrote in his announcement that the situation was "bigger than one artist or one stage."

In his announcement, Macklemore also encouraged other artists who support the cause, especially those unafraid of the consequences, to join him. The Macklemore Free Palestine Tour is expected to add U.S. dates and more artists in the coming weeks. Presale tickets open September 28, with general sales beginning September 30. For more background on the dispute, see Far Out Magazine's report on the Free Palestine Tour and Page Six's coverage of the announcement.