Ed Sheeran Macklemore turned a stadium opening slot into a political flashpoint on Friday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Macklemore opened for Ed Sheeran, performed “Hind’s Hall,” and told the crowd, “Free Palestine!” The response came fast: the Israeli-American Council launched a petition seeking his removal from the remaining Loop Tour dates.
Friday at MetLife Stadium
Macklemore said he wanted to stand in stadiums like this and say two words that were “very near and dear” to his heart: “Free Palestine.” He added that he wanted the words to be loud enough for people “all the way in Gaza to the occupied West Bank” to know they had not been forgotten, and said every person deserves “safety and peace before they know the sound of violence.”
He also said he felt fear on a plane the day before and would stop being on stage if that fear kept him from speaking his heart. That choice matters here because it shows the performance was not just a setlist change; it was a deliberate political statement delivered from a major concert platform built around Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour.
Israeli-American Council petition
The Israeli-American Council, which says it represents more than 150,000 Israeli-Americans, called the concert “an Ed Sheeran concert – not a political rally, not a protest, and not an activist event.” Its petition asks for Macklemore’s removal from the remaining tour dates and pushes tour leadership to say whether his speech, visual content, and performance of “Hind’s Hall” were approved in advance.
The pressure point is simple: if the appearance was part of the tour plan, the political message was built into the show; if it was not, the tour is now managing a stage-use dispute in real time. Either way, the remaining dates have become the practical battleground, because the petition is aimed at changing who appears on them.
Hind’s Hall in 2024
Macklemore wrote “Hind’s Hall” in 2024 in support of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza. The song title comes from Hind Rajab, and it was tied to Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall when student protesters gave it the temporary name Hind’s Hall in her honor.
The immediate issue is no longer the song itself but the tour structure around it. If leadership allowed the performance and speech, the petition becomes a political demand about booking decisions; if it did not, the tour has to decide whether one opening act’s message can stay attached to the rest of the run.
