I told you yesterday that pop star Ed Sheeran is enraging some fans.
He’s allowing his opening act, rapper Macklemore, to spew antisemitic tropes. He performed his song “Hinds Hall” and chanted “Free Palestine!” at two shows at MetLife Stadium this week.
Sheeran’s audience is aghast, and there are reports of many leaving before gingerbread Ed hits the stage.
This has prompted an online petition to keep Macklemore off the Sheeran tour, which is called “LOOP.”
The tour is not over. Sheeran has 8 more stadium dates set with Macklemore. They include Philadelphia, two nights in a row at Foxborough Stadium outside of Boston, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Charlotte NC, Red Rocks, and Tampa.
The final one is appropriate since Raymond James Stadium has already hosted antisemitic rapper Kanye West. So they’re ok with it (and apparently so is financial firm Raymond James).
The LOOP tour is promoted by AEG Live, owned by right wing conservative Philip Anschutz, a Republican mega donor.
Ed Sheeran has a lot to lose here if he continues with Macklemore. Once a sensation who sold out stadiums and sold millions of records, Sheeran has seen his fortunes change. He hasn’t had an actual hit record in some. This year he jumped from a long standing relationship with Atlantic Records over to Interscope. I’m sure the new label isn’t interested in a lot of bad publicity.
And it’s not like ticket sales are so great anyway. At Foxborough only the lower sections are sold. There are thousands of seats available for both nights. Keeping Macklemore and allowing him to carry on this way may result in big box office problems.
Macklemore opened for Ed Sheeran at MetLife Stadium wearing a keffiyeh, performed "Hind's Hall" with Gaza footage on the screens, and told 80,000 people he wanted those in Gaza and the West Bank to know "they have not been forgotten."
— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 6, 2026
He said every human being deserves "the… pic.twitter.com/4J7fB1zEI4
