"Music industry professionals warn that Macklemore's increasingly unhinged radical political rants aren't good for business. Publicist Michael Levine, who has worked with dozens of Grammy-winning musicians, remarked, “Macklemore turned Ed Sheeran’s concert into a political rally. Apparently, the one thing the crowd wanted freed was the stage.'”
"You could say one concert tour currently making its way across the United States is now "Mackle-less." And that's because "rapper" Macklemore (real name: Benjamin Haggerty) has been yanked off of mega-star Ed Sheeran's sold-out tour for subjecting audiences to anti-Israel political rants, graphic images from Gaza, and chants of “Free Palestine” during his opening sets – all while wrapped in a keffiyeh.
"RedState's Brad Essex revealed all the ugly details last week, writing:
Wearing a keffiyeh, he told the crowd of more than 80,000 that he wanted people in Gaza and the West Bank to know they had not been forgotten. He led chants of “Free Palestine,” performed his song “Hind’s Hall,” and put Gaza footage and political images on the big screens. He tied the message to his own daughter and then expanded it to free America, Cuba, the Congo, Sudan, Iran, and people living in fear of ICE.
"This led to backlash from Sheeran's fans, who certainly hadn't paid good money to hear a political rant from the opening act, and prompted the Israeli-American Council to launch a petition asking both Sheeran and the tour organizers to remove Macklemore from the remaining U.S. dates.
And it sounds like they listened.
On Monday, Messina Touring Group, promoters of the U.S. leg of Sheeran’s Loop Tour, told Rolling Stone magazine, “We have been notified by venues on the upcoming U.S. tour dates that they will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup, which would result in the cancellation of the tour and impact hundreds of thousands of fans." . . .
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