Macklemore has announced the “Free Palestine” tour, with three shows set for Dublin (Oct. 26), Paris (Oct. 29) and London (Oct. 30). The news comes after the Grammy-winning rapper was infamously dropped as opener from Ed Sheeran‘s U.S. tour after making “Free Palestine” speeches while on stage at two concerts at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Per Live Nation, the “Free Palestine” tour will “bring Macklemore together with artists and friends for a series of performances that centre Palestine and Palestinians, and help provide humanitarian aid and support to the movement.”
Additionally, all proceeds from the concerts will benefit the following organizations: Anera, Glia, Gaza Soup Kitchen, Taawon, HEAL Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, Middle East Children’s Alliance, Jewish Voice for Peace, Medical Aid for Palestinians. Institute for Middle East Understanding, Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and UNRWA USA.
“If these last couple of weeks have shown us anything, it’s that something has shifted over the last three years,” Macklemore wrote in a statement on Instgaram while announcing the tour. “There has been a collective awakening around Palestinian liberation, the power of billionaires that try to censor that call, and what we expect from artists right now.”
“It’s 2026. Being apolitical during a genocide doesn’t work anymore,” he continued. “People are asking artists to show up, educate themselves and be in community. To use the stage for more than entertainment. To push back when the call for a Free Palestine is met with attempts to silence it… What happened to me is bigger than one artist or one stage. When the billionaire class can decide which voices are allowed on stage and which ones are too dangerous to hear, everyone should be paying attention.”
After Macklemore was dropped from Ed Sheeran’s tour, he announced he was donating the entire $1 million salary he earned to organisations supporting Palestine. The rapper said he was dropped from Sheeran’s tour after Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft refused to let Macklemore play at the venue due to his vocal support for Palestine. Kraft allegedly was talking to other stadium owners to get them to ban Macklemore as well, forcing the tour promoters to drop the rapper.
Kraft responded by claiming that both he and Sheeran would be donating $2 million each to “aid in the region to fight this humanitarian crisis,” although no specific organisations were listed. After Macklemore was dropped from the tour, Sheeran posted a statement that ignited widespread backlash against him as he explained why, unlike Macklemore, he does not speak out on political issues.
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“Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care. Nor does it mean I don’t support causes in my own, personal way,” the singer wrote. “There is a reason I do not use my professional platform for politics – my audience includes young people, often children, of all backgrounds. Those who come to my shows do not expect a political forum. I respect Macklemore’s strength of purpose to stand up and shout for what he believes. However, there is room for multiple approaches to the same end: peace. I choose to use my fame and platform to be a place of safety and sanctuary, to maintain diplomacy and keep conversations open, not closed. If we only focus on shouting the loudest, nothing will ever change. There are different approaches to being an advocate for change.”
Sheeran changed his tune at his Sept. 19 concert, which marked his first show since Macklemore was dropped from the tour. The singer told the crowd after receiving backlash for staying silent that “this is a humanitarian issue, and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore.”
“What happened in Israel and at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable, and disproportionate,” Sheeran said. “Our hearts can be broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians’ lives, children’s lives and the systemic injustice we’re seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked.”
Reach Macklemore’s full statement below.
From Variety US