Post for Macklemore's 'Free Palestine' tour (Instagram/Macklemore)[Missing Credit]
The concerts will bring Macklemore together with yet-to-be-announced artists and friends for performances intended to “centre Palestine and Palestinians” while raising funding for humanitarian aid.
“If these last couple of weeks have shown us anything, it’s that something has shifted over the last three years,” he wrote on Instagram.
“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 added, in an apparent reference to Sheeran’s deliberately apolitical stance and Jewish billionaire Robert Kraft, the owner of one of the stadia that urged Macklemore’s removal.
Sheeran said the decision to remove Macklemore was ultimately made by promoters and venues, rather than by him personally. Several other support acts, including Irish acts Beoga and Aaron Rowe, US musician Finneas and Danish group Lukas Graham, subsequently withdrew from the tour.
All proceeds from the Macklemore concerts will go to 12 organisations supporting Palestinians, including Medical Aid for Palestinians, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, Jewish Voice for Peace, the Palestinian Youth Movement, Anera, Gaza Soup Kitchen, HEAL Palestine and Unrwa USA.
Macklemore said he had spent the past week contacting artists who had “shown up and used their stages to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people”.
Acknowledging that the tour had come together quickly, he said that conversations around artists, schedules and logistics were still being finalised. He confirmed that new performers, as well as dates in the US, would be announced shortly.
“But this is a moment of momentum, and there is work to be done,” he said. “So, we’re going on tour.”
