Four supporting acts left Ed Sheeran’s tour after Macklemore was dropped for pro-Palestinian remarks onstage.
Ed Sheeran’s tour of North and South America was thrown into disarray this week after four of his supporting acts quit in solidarity with the rapper Macklemore, who was removed from the lineup for making pro-Palestinian comments during a show.
The departures followed Sheeran’s own social media post about Macklemore’s exit, in which he attributed the decision to the tour’s promoters. Within hours, the Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga, the Danish band Lukas Graham, and Finneas announced on Instagram that they were leaving the tour. According to reporting by the Associated Press, all of the scheduled opening acts for Sheeran’s upcoming dates had withdrawn.
Macklemore, known for early 2010s hits such as “Thrift Shop” and “Can’t Hold Us,” said he was removed from Sheeran’s Loop Tour after calling out “Free Palestine” during a recent US show. According to the Washington Post, the promoter Messina Touring Group said venues on the tour would not allow Macklemore to perform. Macklemore has said he believes the businessman Robert Kraft rallied stadium owners to press Sheeran over the remarks. Kraft has not commented publicly on that claim.
Sheeran addressed the removal directly. “Macklemore coming off tour was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine,” he wrote on Instagram, adding that he would not let down fans who had made plans or abandon the crew and other musicians who rely on the tour for work. The British singer also said he would not be drawn into a public discussion about the war in Gaza.
In an Instagram post, Macklemore said he wanted to speak from the heart and share what happened. He wrote that Ed Sheeran and his team had made the decision to remove him from the Loop Tour.
Before explaining further, the rapper drew a distinction he said mattered in the moment. He wrote that he was not a victim, that Sheeran was not a victim, and that the artists involved have careers, money, opportunities, safety, and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of them faced for what they said, he wrote, they still get to go home to their families, a point he used to shift the focus away from the performers and toward the situation in Gaza.
Opening Acts Speak Out After Leaving the Tour
The four acts each explained their exit publicly. Finneas, the brother and collaborator of Billie Eilish, wrote that he stands with Palestine and its people and that artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed. He was due to tour with Sheeran in South America later this year and has advocated for Palestinians before, joining Eilish and other public figures last year in support of a benefit concert for relief efforts.
Rowe and Lukas Graham had been lined up as replacements for Macklemore on Sheeran’s remaining US dates, while Beoga had been performing several songs alongside Sheeran during each set. Beoga captioned its Instagram post with a phrase that translates from Irish as “Freedom for Palestine,” and described a friendship with Sheeran of more than ten years. In its statement, the band voiced support for Macklemore and criticized what it called efforts to silence artists who speak about Gaza. Lukas Graham said the withdrawal was a difficult decision and thanked Sheeran, while also questioning the role of money in the dispute, writing that no one’s wealth should decide who is allowed to speak.
The departures leave Sheeran’s remaining tour dates without their scheduled supporting lineup. As of the acts’ announcements, every opener listed for the upcoming shows had stepped away, and the fallout continued to draw wide attention across the music world.
