Macklemore says that nine major US arenas have refused to host his Free Palestine fundraising tour, calling out “intimidation, manipulation and suppression” tactics.
In an Instagram post, the rapper says that he hoped to bring the tour to the US, but nine major arenas refused to host the event, including New York City’s Madison Square Garden, Los Angeles’s Crypto.com arena and Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
Last month, Macklemore brought the Free Palestine tour to Dublin, London and Paris in a show praised by the Guardian’s Alexis Petridis as “a triumph”. The shows came in the wake of Ed Sheeran dropping the rapper from his US tour after he made an onstage speech in support of Palestine.
“From the beginning, our plan was to bring this tour home to the US,” Macklemore wrote. “But after weeks of reaching out, nine major American arenas have turned us down.”
Macklemore said that other venues in the New York tri-state area, including UBS arena and Prudential Center turned him down, as well as Los Angeles’s Intuit Dome and Kia Forum, San Francisco’s Chase Center and Seattle’s Climate Pledge arena.
“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,” he said.
“The doors were closed. 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 an impassioned post that spanned seven Instagram slides, Macklemore said that he no longer cared about burning bridges with music industry top dogs.
“The intimidation, manipulation and suppression I experienced are part of how those in power keep entertainers quiet,” he said. “It’s their main tactic to keep us in line. Shut up and dribble, or you will be punished.
“But at this point, I’m three years past giving two shits about maintaining any relationships, business or personal, with anyone that isn’t riding for a Free Palestine.”
After making a brief speech in support of “the occupied West Bank” in early September while opening up for Sheeran, Macklemore was dropped from the tour. Sheeran claimed that US venues told him that they would refuse to host the show if the rapper continued as the tour’s supporting act.
“I am not complicit,” Sheeran said. “I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean that I don’t care. Nor does it mean that I don’t support causes in my own, personal way.”
Shortly after, all four opening acts as well as Sheeran’s live band quit the tour in solidarity with Macklemore.
On social media, the rapper said: “I’d rather lose every opportunity in this industry than spend another day protecting people who value their business relationships with Israel more than they value Palestinian human life.
“I dream of a world where saying Free Palestine is not controversial,” he added. “It is expected. Where artists value their freedom of speech and collective liberation more than their brand deals.
“Look at what just happened in Europe,” he went on, referring to his shows in Dublin, Paris and London. “Three sold-out arenas. Tens of thousands of people from different backgrounds, religions and walks of life standing together. More than forty artists and speakers putting their names and platforms behind Palestinian liberation. For all the attempts to paint this movement as one rooted in hatred, what filled those rooms was love.”
Macklemore went on to say that the political mood of the US was changing in the wake of the Democrats sweeping the midterm elections this week.
“The tides are turning,” he wrote. “Just three nights ago, Abdul El-Sayed won his Senate race on a platform that included ending the genocide in Gaza and stopping U.S. arms sales to Israel. AIPAC spent $۴۲m trying to defeat him. And they still couldn’t win.
“The trouble with buying power is believing you’ve bought the people too. The billionaires depend on our silence and complicity. They forget that we buy their tickets. We fill their arenas. We build their empires. And we have the power to bring them down.”
The rapper closed his statement with a promise that more shows in support of Palestine will follow.
“There will be more shows for Palestine,” he said. “We’ll keep working with other artists and organizers, continuing where we left off in Europe. We’ll probably just take that shit outside where it belonged in the first place.
“Our commitment to raising funds and standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people remains the same.”
As an ending note, he said: “They may own the arenas. But they do not own the people who fill them. And they never will. FREE PALESTINE.”
