Rapper Macklemore was dropped from the remaining U.S. dates of Ed Sheeran’s stadium tour after turning his opening sets at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium to turn a mainstream concert into a platform for anti-Israel propaganda. Before tens of thousands of concertgoers, Macklemore shouted “Free Palestine,” accused Israel of “genocide” and “apartheid,” and performed his anti-Israel song “Hind’s Hall” accompanied with images of destruction in Gaza, Israeli soldiers and anti-Israel messages. Jewish and Israeli attendees said they had come to see Ed Sheeran, not attend a political rally. Some reported leaving the stadium in tears. The backlash ensued from Jewish and Israeli concertgoers and antisemitism watchdogs, including the Israeli-American Council (IAC), which launched a petition urging Ed Sheeran to remove Macklemore from the tour, and StopAntisemitism, which condemned the performance in an Instagram post and called for apologies and refunds to concertgoers.
Singer Pink, who is Jewish, joined the pushback, criticizing Macklemore for showing violent war images to “a stadium full of music-loving families” and then telling Jews in the audience that “it wasn’t about them.” “You don’t get to decide that for us,” she wrote. She later described the hostility she encountered for doing so, writing that standing up for Jews had proved “lonelier” than she expected. The backlash soon had practical consequences. Promoter Messina Touring Group confirmed to Rolling Stone that several venues scheduled for upcoming shows had refused to host concerts with Macklemore on the lineup, threatening cancellation of the tour and affecting hundreds of thousands of ticket holders. Among the venues reported to have objected to Macklemore’s participation were Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, AT&T Stadium in Arlington and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, whose Kraft Group owns Gillette Stadium and who founded the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism in 2019, said the venue’s decision reflected both Macklemore’s New Jersey remarks and a “broader history of rhetoric and imagery” he believed had been deeply offensive and hurtful to Jews. Kraft said the decision was not intended to silence Palestinian advocacy, but that his years fighting antisemitism gave him a responsibility to act when he believed “that line has been crossed.”
Macklemore, who had been scheduled to open eight of the final 10 U.S. shows, was removed.
The episode marked a rare instance in which critics successfully pushed back against the insertion of aggressive anti-Israel propaganda into an unrelated mainstream cultural event.
“Macklemore calls for a ‘Free Palestine’ while opening for Ed Sheeran at New Jersey show,” by Times of Israel staff, The Times of Israel, Sept. 6, 2026
Israeli-American Council petition urging Ed Sheeran to remove Macklemore from the tour, Instagram, Sept. 6, 2026
StopAntisemitism post condemning Macklemore’s MetLife performance, Instagram, Sept. 6, 2026
“Pink hits back amid backlash for criticizing Macklemore’s pro-Palestinian concert remarks,” by Emily Trainham, Fox News, Sept. 12, 2026
