Macklemore has announced a "Free Palestine" tour with three European dates: Dublin on Oct. 26, Paris on Oct. 29 and London on Oct. 30. Live Nation says the tour will "bring Macklemore together with artists and friends for a series of performances that center Palestine and Palestinians, and help provide humanitarian aid and support to the movement."

The announcement follows the rapper's removal as opener from Ed Sheeran's U.S. tour after he delivered "Free Palestine" speeches from the stage at two concerts at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

All proceeds from the new tour will benefit nine organizations: Anera, Glia, Gaza Soup Kitchen, Taawon, HEAL Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, Middle East Children's Alliance, Jewish Voice for Peace, Medical Aid for Palestinians, Institute for Middle East Understanding, Palestine Children's Relief Fund and UNRWA USA.

Macklemore announced the tour in a statement on Instagram. "If these last couple of weeks have shown us anything, it's that something has shifted over the last three years," he wrote. "There has been a collective awakening around Palestinian liberation, the power of billionaires that try to censor that call, and what we expect from artists right now."

"It's 2026. Being apolitical during a genocide doesn't work anymore," he continued. "People are asking artists to show up, educate themselves and be in community. To use the stage for more than entertainment. To push back when the call for a Free Palestine is met with attempts to silence it… What happened to me is bigger than one artist or one stage. When the billionaire class can decide which voices are allowed on stage and which ones are too dangerous to hear, everyone should be paying attention."

The Grammy winner has said he was dropped from Sheeran's tour after Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft refused to let him perform at the venue because of his vocal support for Palestine. The rapper said Kraft was speaking with other stadium owners to have him banned as well, which forced the tour promoters to drop him. After his removal, Macklemore pledged to donate his entire $1 million tour salary to organizations supporting Palestine.

Kraft responded by claiming that he and Sheeran would each donate $2 million to "aid in the region to fight this humanitarian crisis." No specific organizations were named.

Sheeran then posted a statement that drew widespread backlash, explaining why he does not speak out on political issues. "Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn't mean I don't have them, and it doesn't mean I don't care. Nor does it mean I don't support causes in my own, personal way," the singer wrote. "There is a reason I do not use my professional platform for politics – my audience includes young people, often children, of all backgrounds. Those who come to my shows do not expect a political forum. I respect Macklemore's strength of purpose to stand up and shout for what he believes. However, there is room for multiple approaches to the same end: peace. I choose to use my fame and platform to be a place of safety and sanctuary, to maintain diplomacy and keep conversations open, not closed. If we only focus on shouting the loudest, nothing will ever change. There are different approaches to being an advocate for change."

Sheeran shifted his stance at his Sept. 19 concert, his first show since Macklemore's removal. He told the crowd: "this is a humanitarian issue, and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore."

"What happened in Israel and at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable, and disproportionate," Sheeran said. "Our hearts can be broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians' lives, children's lives and the systemic injustice we're seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked."

With three stadium-scale controversies now behind him, Macklemore has converted his removal from a major touring slot into a headlining platform of his own — one where the politics are the program.