The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!
The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!

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Macklemore hijacks Ed Sheeran shows with anti-Israel, ‘terrorist ICE’ message- TWICE — now there’s a push to boot him from tour

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BS BULLETIN:

  • Macklemore used his opening sets for Ed Sheeran at MetLife Stadium to repeatedly call for “Free Palestine,” accuse Israel of genocide and apartheid, and perform his protest song “Hind’s Hall” as Gaza imagery filled the stadium screens.
  • After outrage erupted following Friday night’s performance, Macklemore returned Saturday and delivered the political message again.
  • The Israeli-American Council is now calling on Sheeran to remove Macklemore from his remaining tour dates, while some concertgoers say they walked out or were left in tears.

People bought tickets to see Ed Sheeran. They got a Middle East political rally before the show.

Rapper Macklemore ignited a furious backlash after using his opening sets at Ed Sheeran’s massive MetLife Stadium concerts in New Jersey to deliver an extended pro-Palestinian message — and then doing it again the following night despite the controversy.

“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,” Macklemore told the crowd.

The rapper, whose real name is Benjamin Haggerty, wore a keffiyeh during the performance and told the audience he wanted people in Gaza and the West Bank to know they had not been forgotten. He also denounced Israel’s conduct in Gaza, referred to apartheid and genocide, and took a shot at the United States.

“Free America, free Cuba to the Congo to Sudan to Iran,” Macklemore said, before calling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement a “terror organization.”

He then performed “Hind’s Hall,” his 2024 protest song named for the moniker pro-Palestinian demonstrators gave Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall after occupying the building. Images from Gaza, Israeli soldiers and pro-Palestinian demonstrations and messages appeared across the stadium’s giant screens during the performance.

The reaction inside the stadium was divided.

Parts of the crowd cheered and joined Macklemore’s chants. Other concertgoers said they were stunned that a night they expected to spend watching Sheeran had turned into a political event.

One father who attended with his wife and two daughters wrote on social media that his children looked at him confused as Macklemore began chanting. He said he’d brought them to an Ed Sheeran concert — not to receive a lecture on Middle East politics.

Other Jewish and Israeli attendees described a much more emotional reaction. Two New Jersey concertgoers told Ynet that members of their group had friends killed in the war and at the Nova music festival and that some in their party cried and left before Sheeran even performed. Another attendee told the New York Post that his mother was left in tears.

But Macklemore also had plenty of defenders, with supporters praising him for using his platform to advocate for Palestinians.

Then came Saturday night.

Despite the backlash from Friday’s performance, Macklemore returned to the MetLife stage as Sheeran’s opening act and again delivered his “Free Palestine” message and performed “Hind’s Hall.”

That second performance shifted some of the criticism toward Sheeran himself. Actor and comedian Michael Rapaport tore into Macklemore on social media, calling him a “clown” and questioning why Sheeran had brought him on the tour.

The Israeli-American Council went further. The organization launched a petition calling on Sheeran and tour organizers to remove Macklemore from his remaining appearances.

“This was an Ed Sheeran concert — not a political rally, not a protest, and not an activist event,” the organization said.

The group said its objection wasn’t that Macklemore holds political views, but that an opening act used a major concert stage to deliver what it described as one-sided political propaganda.

Macklemore, meanwhile, has made his position anything but a secret.

He has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s conduct in Gaza since the war began following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack. In 2024, he also generated controversy after leading a profane anti-America chant at a pro-Palestinian event in Seattle.

As of Sunday, Sheeran had not publicly addressed the latest controversy. And Macklemore is scheduled to join him at additional U.S. tour stops. Which means the question now isn’t what Macklemore plans to say. It’s whether Ed Sheeran plans to keep handing him the microphone.

MY QUICK TAKE

Friday night, you can call it Macklemore going rogue.

Saturday night? That’s when people started looking at Ed Sheeran.

When your opening act turns the concert into a political rally, comes back the next night and does it all over again, “I didn’t know” gets considerably harder to sing.

DBS WIRE SOURCES:

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