Grammy Award-winning artist FINNEAS has announced he won’t perform on upcoming tours with Ed Sheeran, expressing solidarity with Palestinians and Macklemore, who was removed from the tour schedule because he shouted “free Palestine” on stage.
“Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed. I have decided to withdraw from my upcoming tour dates with Ed Sheeran. I stand with Palestine and its people,” FINNEAS stated in a letter.
FINNEAS was scheduled to open for Sheeran on the Loop Tour’s Latin American leg. Sheeran will play at U.S. venues until November 7, then the tour will move to Latin American countries, with FINNEAS scheduled to open until mid-December. Upcoming performances with FINNEAS were scheduled in Buenos Aires, Argentina; La Florida, Chile; Asunción, Paraguay; and São Paulo, Brazil.
The reason for this decision is Macklemore’s recent removal from the tour. The Seattle rapper, known for supporting Palestinians and people in Gaza, recently joined the Loop Tour to perform two concerts at MetLife Stadium near New York on September 4 and 5. At the first of the two shows, Macklemore shouted “Free Palestine” and expressed solidarity with Palestinians and people in the occupied West Bank during the intro to “Hind’s Hall,” a song related to the protests at Columbia University. At the university, demonstrators renamed Hamilton Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a Palestinian child killed in Gaza in 2024.
According to Rolling Stone, the promoter for the U.S. leg, Messina Touring Group, said that “venues will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup.” Their refusal to let Macklemore perform would cancel the entire tour and cost hundreds of thousands of fans, and Macklemore will not perform at the remaining dates after discussions with stakeholders.
In his Instagram post, Macklemore said that he was dropped from the tour after Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium, led a pressure campaign against Sheeran. He also claimed that Robert Kraft persuaded the other stadium owners that they could not host the tour if Macklemore remained on the tour’s lineup. Questioning the timing, Macklemore asked: “So why is it an issue now?”
Indeed, Kraft confirmed that he banned Macklemore from Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts because of the “broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery”. He stressed that he was not trying to downplay the plight of innocent Palestinians or any person who stands for them, and he didn’t respond to the claim about the contacts that he maintained with other stadium owners.
After the MetLife performance, the Israeli American Council launched a petition demanding Macklemore be removed from the tour.
