Macklemore brought the final night of his Free Palestine Tour to London on Friday, telling a U.K. audience: “I don’t believe that staying silent is brave.”
The sold-out event at the capital’s OVO Arena Wembley boasted a crowd of over 12,500 people, who cheered and screamed as U.S. rapper spoke.
The gigs come weeks after he was removed from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour for expressing his pro-Palestine views on stage. Sheeran later said it was a promoter decision to drop Macklemore, and that venues set to host the concerts threatened to pull out if Macklemore was on the bill.
In response, Macklemore launched his own benefit concert with acts in the British capital such as Aja Monet, Cure for Paranoia, Dana Saleh, Nemahsis, Lucas Jones, Paloma Faith, Roze, Shadia Mansour and Vic Mensa. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was among the guest speakers, along with Hollywood superstars Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, Javier Bardem, Cynthia Nixon, as well as Melissa Barrera and Julian Casablancas, dialling in remotely.
“It was more uncomfortable for me to stay silent than to say something,” said Macklemore about the situation with Sheeran. “And I just want to say, I don’t believe that saying something is brave. I don’t believe that saying something is courageous. I believe that saying something is human. And those children in Gaza are our children. There is no separation.”
He continued: “I want to say thank you to every single soul that is in here tonight who decided to step up, leave their couch, be in community, be reminded and feel what that frequency of love feels like.” Macklemore added about the 50 members of the British House of Lords who urged the U.K. government to ban his concert: “Regardless of what the 50 Lords have to say, this is a story of equality for all human beings around this earth.”
All proceeds from the concerts in Dublin, Paris and London will go toward organizations supporting Palestinian communities through humanitarian relief, medical care, education, advocacy, policy change and community initiatives, according to the rapper’s team. Popular Irish acts Hozier and Kneecap were included on the lineup in Dublin, as was Boega, Sheeran’s backing band that pulled out of the Loop Tour in solidarity with Macklemore.
After widespread backlash, Sheeran was emotional as he addressed the controversy onstage in Philadelphia last month: “I don’t want to disappoint fans, and I’ve never wanted to be an activist musician, but this has put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet,” he said. “My concerts have always been a safe space for everyone, and that matters hugely to me. […] What happened in Israel and at the Nova Music Festival on October 7th was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable, and disproportionate.”
Sheeran told the crowd: “Honoring my commitment to my fans is also completely essential to who I am, and that is why I’m here tonight on my own and continuing my current tour.” The singer added that he was “deeply worried about the idea that venues pre-approve content for performance. […] This happens in so many places that I perform around the world, but it should never happen in the free world.”
According to numbers from the British Red Cross, the death toll in Gaza is over 69,000. Almost 1,200 Israelis were killed in the October 7 attack in 2023.
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