Macklemore is speaking out after news broke that he was dropped from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour.
“I’m not sure how to start this. So I’m going to speak from the heart and share the truth,” Macklemore, 43, wrote via Instagram on Monday, September 14. “Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from the Loop Tour. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families.”
According to Macklemore, the victims are the Palestinian people who he claims “have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence.”
“More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow,” he continued. “I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don’t lose sight of that.”
Macklemore described Sheeran, 35, as “my friend” who he’s known for 13 years. Over the past week, there have been some “difficult conversations” between the pair about what happens next.
“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,” Mackelmore claimed. “I hope this isn’t the end of my relationship with Ed. Thirteen years of friendship doesn’t disappear because of one painful disagreement. I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door will always be open to continuing that conversation.”
Us has reached out to Sheeran’s rep for comment.
In a statement shared with Rolling Stone earlier on Monday, Messina Touring Group said: “As the concert promoter for Ed Sheeran’s U.S. Loop 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, which would result in the cancellation of the tour and impact hundreds of thousands of fans. After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates.”
While performing his opening set at Sheeran’s concerts in New Jersey on September 4 and 5, Macklemore chanted “Free Palestine” and performed his protest track “Hind’s Hall.”
During the show, he stated that his primary reason for doing the stadium concerts was to advocate for Palestine amid the Israeli–Palestinian conflict over land in the Middle East.
Pink, 47, later joined the conversation when she reposted a message from StopAntisemitism accusing Macklemore of spreading “anti‑Israel propaganda.”
She later addressed her post in a separate Instagram post, saying in part, “A repost isn’t a statement, and a meme isn’t a spine. Social media makes all of us cheap and fast, and we all know it. But I’d rather be disagreed with for what I actually said than hated for what anybody else wrote.”
As Sheeran prepares for more shows at the end of the week, Macklemore appears to have no regrets over what happened on stage.
“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,” Macklemore shared in his latest Instagram statement. “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.”
