Macklemore #
Introduction #
Macklemore — the stage name of Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, an American rapper from Seattle, Washington — is a Grammy-winning artist best known for the early-2010s hits “Thrift Shop,” “Can’t Hold Us,” and “Same Love,” recorded with producer Ryan Lewis. In September 2026 he became the target of an organized removal campaign after using his opening slot on Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour at MetLife Stadium to deliver a pro-Palestinian speech, lead a stadium-wide “Free Palestine” chant, and perform his 2024 protest song “Hind’s Hall.” Within days, the Israeli-American Council had launched a public petition demanding that Sheeran drop him from the remainder of the tour, and the episode was decried by Jewish advocacy figures while drawing praise from other fans.
Background Information #
Haggerty was born and raised in Seattle and began releasing music independently in 2000 before rising to international fame as half of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis between 2009 and 2016. Their 2012 album “The Heist” produced multiple international chart-toppers, and “Same Love” established his early reputation for folding social and political themes into pop-rap, in his case LGBTQ+ rights. In 2024 he released “Hind’s Hall,” a protest song named for the building occupied by pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Columbia University, which has since become closely associated with his support for Palestinians. That history is what made his booking as an opener contentious before he ever took the stage: Rabbi Menachem Creditor, father of one concertgoer, later said it was a mistake for Sheeran’s team to book him at all “given the rapper’s past anti-Israel remarks.”
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #
On Friday, September 4, 2026, Macklemore opened for Ed Sheeran at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, before a crowd in excess of 80,000, wearing a keffiyeh draped over his shoulders. “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,” he told the crowd, adding that he wanted people “all the way in Gaza to the occupied West Bank” to know “that we have not forgotten about them.” During “Hind’s Hall,” footage from Gaza and pro-Palestinian demonstrations played on the stadium screens, and he accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza — a characterization the Israeli-American Council would later describe as a “disputed claim[] presented to a massive audience as fact, without context or complexity.” He also tied the moment to a personal note about his 11-year-old daughter, and extended the chant: “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.” He repeated the performance at the second MetLife show on Saturday, September 5.
Public Reaction and Consequences #
The response was immediate and polarized. Concertgoer Moshe Creditor, 21, who attended on birthday tickets with his mother, said: “Imagine my shock when he got 80,000 people to chant ‘Free Palestine’ while putting on a song and music video to go with it” — adding that the night left his mother in tears. Another attendee, Josh Wein, wrote that his daughters looked “completely confused” when the opener began “lecturing them about Middle East politics,” and Israeli-American attendees told Ynet the moment was “like a knife in the heart” given friends killed in the war and at the Nova festival attack. On Sunday, the Israeli-American Council, which says it represents more than 15,000 Israeli-Americans, launched a petition demanding Sheeran drop Macklemore from the tour’s remaining dates, accusing him of spreading “antisemitic propaganda” and stating: “This was an Ed Sheeran concert – not a political rally, not a protest, and not an activist event.” The petition, filed via Monday.com, targeted Sheeran, his management, venue leadership, and promoter Live Nation, and demanded to know whether the speech, visuals, and song had been approved in advance. Calls circulated on social media for ticket refunds, actor Michael Rapaport branded him a “clown” in a viral X post, the group StopAntisemitism resurfaced a past stage appearance in which he wore a fake giant nose, and the New York Jewish Coalition’s CEO warned that one-sided messaging at mass events divides people. Other fans, meanwhile, praised him for using a major platform to speak about the conflict.
Current Status #
As of the latest reporting, Macklemore had not been removed from the Loop Tour, and no sponsor or label action had been announced. Sheeran’s management and Macklemore’s public-relations teams did not respond to The New York Post’s request for comment, and Sheeran himself had not publicly addressed the controversy. The petition remained live, and the IAC also called on concert venues broadly to establish boundaries around political expression during shows. The tour, which also features openers Lukas Graham and BIIRD, was set to continue.
Impact on Their Career/Life #
The episode reignited a standing fight over Macklemore’s political stagecraft — for critics, a line crossed from advocacy into the hijacking of someone else’s fans’ night; for supporters, an artist doing precisely what “Same Love” and “Hind’s Hall” always suggested he would. The immediate business exposure falls mostly on the tour he does not headline: whether Sheeran keeps him booked for the remaining dates became a public pressure campaign aimed at one of the world’s biggest touring acts, and the IAC’s demand that venues police opening acts could outlast this particular controversy. For Macklemore, the stadium moment was both his largest platform in years and the trigger for the most organized removal effort of his career.