Back in September, Ed Sheeran dropped his friend Macklemore from his stadium tour, reportedly because New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft didn't want Macklemore talking about Israel's genocide of Palestinian people onstage. The move led to a huge backlash against Sheeran and a wave of respect for Macklemore. In response, Macklemore announced that he's donating the $1 million that he made from the Sheeran tour to organizations that aid Palestinian people, and he also planned a Free Palestine arena tour of his own.
But now, it looks like he's running into the same problem, with owners of American arenas refusing to book the Free Palestine tour. When Macklemore first announced his Free Palestine tour, he only had concrete plans for three benefit shows in Dublin, Paris, and London. Those three shows have all happened.
All of them sold out, raising more money for Palestinian people. All three shows had surprise guests, including Hozier and Kneecap in Dublin, Aurora and Pomme in Paris, and Paloma Faith and Aja Monet in London. Macklemore had plans to bring the tour to the US.
In a new Instagram message, though, Macklemore says that American arenas simply will not book the tour. He names the specific arenas, too. Macklemore writes that "nine major arenas" — Madison Square Garden, Prudential Center, Barclays Arena, UBS Arena, Intuit Dome, Kia Forum, Crypto.com Arena, Chase Center, and Climate Pledge Arena — have rejected the booking: By mid-September, we received available dates at these arenas through the end of the year.
But once they found out these were my benefit shows for Palestine, those dates were suddenly off the table. The conversations were all different, but the result was the same. The shows were not going to be allowed to happen in these venues.In over twenty years of touring, I've never experienced anything like this.
We live in a country that prides itself on freedom of speech. Yet we've reached a point where a handful of billionaires can decide which causes are acceptable, which voices are welcome and which human lives are worth defending.Today it's Palestine. What will it be tomorrow?To these owners, the words Free Palestine represent a threat.
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