Macklemore is the latest celebrity to face backlash over his “Free Palestine” onstage public plea while opening for Ed Sheeran this weekend.
After the 4x Grammy winner took the stage for Sheeran’s Loop Tour on Friday night at MetLife Stadium, where he called for “safety and peace” for all before performing his protest song “Hind’s Hall”, the Israeli-American Council started a petition urging Sheeran to “remove Macklemore” from the remainder of the tour.
“This was an Ed Sheeran concert – not a political rally, not a protest, and not an activist event,” the petition reads. “The issue is not whether Macklemore has the right to hold political views. The question is where the line should be drawn when an opening act uses a global concert platform to advance a one-sided political agenda.”
The petition also calls for “tour leadership to clarify whether Macklemore’s political speech, visual content, and performance of Hind’s Hall were approved in advance, and to establish clear boundaries for the use of the tour stage to promote political messaging.
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“Freedom of expression does not mean freedom from responsibility. Your show. Your stage. Your responsibility. Keep Ed Sheeran’s LOOP Tour about music – not political propaganda.”
Macklemore wrote his 2024 protest anthem “Hind’s Hall” in support of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, named for Columbia students’ renaming of academic Hamilton Hall to Hind’s Hall, in honor of 5-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed in the Gaza Strip by IDF forces.
Prefacing the song during Friday’s show, Macklemore told the audience:
“A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: Free Palestine. I said, ‘Free Palestine!’ I want those words to be loud and clear, so that people all the way in Gaza to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten about them.
“I have an 11-year-old daughter, her name is Sloan, she’s here tonight. And if any of you guys are parents, then you know that that love that you have for your kids cannot be put into words, right? I want to see her grow up, I want to see her go to school, to fall in love, to figure out meaning, purpose, joy, her existence on this planet. I want it to be the most beautiful possible. And I think that every single human being that walks this earth deserves that exact same feeling. To know safety and peace before they know the sound of violence, to know the sound of laughter on a playground before planes and bombs, for parents to be able to say bye to their kids in the morning and not have to wonder if this is going to be the last time they kiss their child goodbye.
“And if I let that fear I felt on the plane yesterday stop me from speaking my heart in order to keep my own comfort and the audience’s comfort, that is the day I no longer continue to be on stage. So, I say, ‘Free Palestine!’ I say, free America, free Cuba to the Congo to Sudan to Iran, and all the people in America who have to live in fear because of this terrorist organization ICE.”
