Macklemore pledges $1m in tour earnings to Palestinian groups

Macklemore announced on Instagram that he will give the entire $1 million he earned from the U.S. dates of Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour to six groups working directly to support Palestinians. The pledge followed his removal from the remaining U.S. tour dates after he used performances to express support for Palestinians, and after Kraft confirmed he had barred Macklemore from performing at Gillette Stadium. In making the announcement, Macklemore appealed to Robert Kraft to match the donation. Kraft had previously said he opposed Macklemore performing at his venue, citing what he called a history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery, and maintained that advocacy should not come at the expense of the Jewish community or obscure Hamas’s responsibility for the violence. Kraft later said Sheeran had asked him to commit $2 million in humanitarian aid and that Sheeran planned to seek additional contributions from other venue owners. Macklemore framed his donation as an effort to re-center attention on Palestinians’ rights rather than the controversy around the tour, acknowledging that writing a check is a relatively low-risk form of solidarity compared with work being done on the ground. He urged people to continue focusing on the humanitarian situation when media attention moves on. The fallout from his removal has broadened: all supporting acts for Sheeran’s upcoming U.S. Loop Tour have since withdrawn in solidarity with Macklemore, and some artists cited parallels with their own countries’ histories when explaining their decisions. Sheeran has said the choice to drop Macklemore was made by the tour promoter rather than by him personally.