In an exclusive statement shared with Rolling Stone, Messina Touring Group, promoter of the U.S. leg of Sheeran’s Loop Tour, 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.”

Macklemore was slated to appear at eight of the 10 shows left on the U.S. leg of Sheeran’s tour, which is set to resume this Friday, Sept. 19, in Philadelphia. The venues that allegedly objected to the rapper include: Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia; Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts; Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta; Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis; Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina; AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas; and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

Macklemore — who’s been an outspoken supporter of Palestinians and those in Gaza for several years — joined the Loop Tour earlier this month, performing two shows at MetLife Stadium outside of New York City, on Sept. 4 and 5. At the first show, the Seattle rapper yelled “Free Palestine” onstage and expressed solidarity with people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. He also showed images from the devastation in Gaza and performed his protest song, “Hind’s Hall,” about pro-Palestine demonstrators at Columbia, who occupied a building and named it after Hind Raja, a six-year-old killed by the Israeli military.

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[–] 1 point 2 hours ago

"I'm in love with the rape of you, cause I move like the IDF do. If you hate that, you hate the jews, I'm in love with the slaughter! Boom-ba-boom-ba-boom-baboom-ba-boom"

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  • [–] 3 points 5 hours ago

    Robert Kraft is a Zionist. And, an overall POS. It's hilarious how many people kiss his feet. Typical billionaire obsession.

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  • [–] 14 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

    I'm older than this generation. Don't really know any of Ed Sheeran's music, and only know Thrift Shop from Macklemore.

    But I did read the full transcript of Macklemore's 'controvery,' and was impressed with his clarity, eloquence, and compassion.

    Ed Sheeran is fucking coward.

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  • [–] 30 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

    Pink later explained that she did not object to Macklemore’s calls for a “Free Palestine,” but said, “I have never asked for another artist to be silenced and I’m not asking now. I don’t need anyone fired, and I don’t need a refund. What I need is to be able to say, as a Jewish mom, ‘that scared me, and it scared people I love,’ without being told our fear is just propaganda, and without being told I’m somehow cool with genocide because I noticed?”

    Free Palestine =/= hating Jews or advocating violence against Jewish people, Pink. Zionists have done a fairly good propganda to make people associate criticism of Israel to be anti-semantic. It's about recognizing the ongoing genocide and apartheid by the Israeli government and the supporters.

    Fun fact, Pink. Anyone from any religion can be an Israeli citizen.

    Let's turn to the people who definetely desrved to be hated;

    In an exclusive statement shared with Rolling Stone, Messina Touring Group, promoter of the U.S. leg of Sheeran’s Loop Tour, 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.”

    In a statement shared on Instagram, Macklemore claimed he was dropped from the tour after Robert Kraft — the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium — mounted a pressure campaign against Sheeran.

    This spurred much criticism and backlash from pro-Israel groups. StopAntisemitism accused the rapper of ambushing fans with “anti-Israel propaganda” in an Instagram post, which the pop singer Pink amplified.

    Additionally, the Israeli American Council launched a petition demanding Sheeran remove Macklemore from the rest of the tour, claiming his actions raised questions over “where the line should be drawn when an opening act uses a global concert platform to advance a one-sided political agenda.”

    Elsewhere in his statement on the matter, Macklemore called [Ed] Sheeran a “friend” and acknowledged the singer-songwriter “was in a fucked up position” after the alleged pressure campaign. Macklemore continued: “His typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before. 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. I told him that if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood. But he couldn’t get past his public facing, ‘I don’t take sides.’”

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  • [–] [S] 41 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    The last stop on Sheeran’s Loop Tour, for instance, is Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, which found itself in a similar spot earlier this summer after booking two Kanye West concerts. The shows, unsurprisingly, drew backlash and calls for cancellation due to West’s many past antisemitic statements, but they went ahead as planned.

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  • [–] 32 points 21 hours ago

    When the guy saying "heil hitler" and selling swastika branded merch doesn't offend you, but a guy saying "Free Palestine" does, it means you're a fucking moron loser dipshit that uses your religion as a sword and shield against brown people because you're a racist genocide supporter.

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  • [–] 35 points 23 hours ago (1 child)

    Ed Sheridan sucks gop cock anyway

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  • [–] 19 points 22 hours ago

    Never liked Ed. Knew guys like him in high-school.

    They could strum a guitar a little and acted like the sun shined outta of their inbred looking ass.

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  • [–] 2 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

    That's it. Now I'm really not buying tickets to his concert.

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  • [–] 14 points 22 hours ago

    Fuck Ed Sheeran

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  • [–] 9 points 21 hours ago

    Hated ed sheeran ever since my school did a project about respecting women and the example they used was Shape of You, a song about objectifying women

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  • [–] 13 points 22 hours ago

    Guess I'll be listening to Macklemore for the rest of the day.

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  • [–] 17 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    I guess the use of "dropped" rather than "cancelled" is kinda interesting

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  • [–] 5 points 18 hours ago
    [–] 8 points 23 hours ago (5 children)

    I know nothing about US Culture, but I do know Macklemore's name. Who TF is Ed Sheeran, like a talk show host? Let's boycott those mr. Sheeran, those stadiums, and the companies that own them.

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  • [–] 16 points 23 hours ago (1 child)

    He's a hobbit that got gifted the one-true-algorithm and used it to propel himself to stardom. Please, save yourself, avoid at all costs.

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  • [–] 7 points 22 hours ago

    My take is that he is a sentient Scotch Egg that bathed in the fountain of inexplicable popularity, and made his career spoon feeding saps the musical equivalent of lukewarm diarrhea.

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  • [–] -5 points 13 hours ago*

    Companies and their owners have always been sensitive weenies, and if you want their money you have to play by their rules.

    Macklemore made an error in judgment, he thought that they needed him more than he needed them. Apparently not.

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