Comedian Kathy Griffin has weighed in on the fallout over Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour, arguing the British pop star should have stood his ground against New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, according to remarks she made Wednesday on Queerty.
Griffin said she wished Sheeran had rejected the advice to drop Macklemore as his opening act, and she aimed her sharpest criticism at Kraft, the Gillette Stadium owner who, she said, had rallied other venue operators against the rapper.
“When Robert Kraft says, ‘I’ve called all the other stadium owners and they’re not gonna let you do the show with Macklemore either,’ then Ed Sheeran should’ve said, ‘Go fuck yourself, I can go to Brazil and perform for 250,000 people,'” Griffin said during the appearance.
The 65-year-old comedian described Sheeran as “a true global artist” with options beyond the American stadium circuit, and said Macklemore is in the same category.
‘More Power Than He Was Aware Of’
Griffin suggested the dynamic left Macklemore reluctant to publicly fault Sheeran, given the pressure Sheeran faced from promoters and venue owners.
“So then it put Macklemore in the position of not wanting to really blame Ed because he knew the pressure he was under,” she said. “But in my humble opinion, Ed had more power than he was aware of. And I think he made a bad call on this.”
The comedian also asserted that Macklemore’s onstage remarks were protected by the First Amendment — a characterization that, as reported by Breitbart News, does not match the amendment’s actual scope, which restricts government action rather than the decisions of private companies and venue operators.
How the Split Happened
Sheeran has faced weeks of controversy since Macklemore was removed as his opening act following an anti-Israel tirade on stage. As Breitbart News previously reported, Macklemore had been scheduled to play eight more U.S. shows with Sheeran before being dropped.
Sheeran has said the decision was not his to make. According to the “Castle on the Hill” singer, dropping Macklemore had been “the promoter’s decision.”
The removal did not quiet the broader dispute. Anti-Israel protesters organized a gathering outside Gillette Stadium for Sheeran’s scheduled performances, but those plans fizzled when the Friday and Saturday concerts were canceled because of an approaching nor’easter.
Kraft Praised by Israeli-American Council
The Israeli-American Council (IAC) issued a statement praising Kraft and other stadium owners for what it described as moral leadership in barring Macklemore from the concert stage rather than allowing him to “promote antisemitism.”
“Robert Kraft’s moral leadership establishes what should be an obvious principle: a performer who traffics in antisemitism should not be given a stage,” the IAC said. “As a result, Macklemore will no longer be allowed to subject audiences to his hateful rants.”
Griffin’s comments add a prominent entertainment-industry voice to a dispute that has stretched from concert stages to stadium boardrooms. Her argument rests on the idea that Sheeran, whose global pull she compared to Macklemore’s, could have absorbed the loss of U.S. dates and kept the rapper on the bill — a calculation she said he got wrong.
Sheeran has not publicly responded to Griffin’s remarks. Macklemore likewise has not issued a statement in response to her appearance on Queerty, where she made the case that the decision to part ways came from outside pressure rather than from either artist’s own preference.
For now, the episode leaves an unusual split screen: a comedian calling out one of pop music’s biggest touring acts for caving, a billionaire team owner being held up by a Jewish advocacy group as a model of principle, and a rap star whose scheduled run of stadium shows ended ahead of schedule — all against the backdrop of a weather-canceled weekend in Foxborough.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2026/09/28/kathy-griffin-says-ed-sheeran-shouldve-told-robert-kraft-to-go-fk-yourself-over-macklemore/