Dearborn, Michigan Mayor Abdullah Hammoud publicly invited rapper Macklemore to perform a free city-sponsored concert on Monday, just hours after the performer was removed from the remainder of Ed Sheeran’s tour over anti-Israel remarks he made on stage, according to The Daily Wire.
“Hey [Macklemore], if they don’t want you performing in their stadiums, you’re always welcome in Dearborn,” Hammoud wrote on social media Monday evening. “Come put on a show here. We’ll make it a free concert, sponsored by the City, and help make it one of the best around.”
The mayor closed his post by writing, “We stand with you and for a free Palestine. Let’s make it happen.”
A tour removal and a blame game
The invitation followed confirmation from Messina Touring Group, which is promoting Sheeran’s tour, that Macklemore had been dropped as an opening act. The company said Monday that multiple venues had indicated they would “not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup,” and that the decision came after “discussions with stakeholders.”
Macklemore responded to the removal by pointing the finger at New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, whose company owns Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. According to The Daily Wire, Macklemore alleged that Kraft refused to let him perform during Sheeran’s upcoming shows at the venue and then “rallied” other stadium owners to take the same position.
“We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group,” Macklemore wrote. “Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.”
The rapper also framed the situation in broader terms, writing that while he, Sheeran and Pink all have “careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world,” the real victims are the Palestinian people. “Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families,” he wrote.
He went on to criticize Sheeran for what he described as an attempt to remain neutral, arguing that “there is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed.” In his telling, the decision to remove him was less about individual remarks than about preventing the stage from becoming a platform for pro-Palestinian expression at scale.
“If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next?” Macklemore wrote. “The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that’s why this time it became so important to silence me.”
Dearborn’s history with Macklemore
Hammoud’s offer is not the city’s first brush with the rapper. Macklemore visited Dearborn two years ago for an Arab American civil rights convention, where he spent time with Hammoud, the Detroit Free Press reported. During that visit, the city of Dearborn issued him a proclamation, and he was honored with an award at the convention of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Dearborn has the largest Arab American population of any U.S. city and has drawn heightened political attention in recent years, particularly around debates over U.S. policy toward Israel and Gaza. Local officials there have been vocal critics of the war in Gaza, and Hammoud’s message to Macklemore fits that pattern.
The dispute over Macklemore’s status on the Loop tour has unfolded against a wider backdrop of tension in the live music industry over politically charged performances. Venue owners and touring companies have increasingly had to weigh commercial relationships against the risk of on-stage statements that could trigger backlash, boycotts or logistical complications at host cities and stadiums.
Representatives for Messina Touring Group have pointed to venue decisions rather than a single directive as the reason for Macklemore’s removal, while Macklemore’s account focuses on coordinated pressure from stadium ownership. Kraft and the Kraft Group have not issued a public statement on the matter as of Monday evening, according to reporting from The Daily Wire.
For now, the immediate question hanging over the tour is scheduling — how Sheeran’s remaining dates will be filled, and whether any of the affected venues release statements of their own. The longer-term question is whether Hammoud’s invitation materializes into an actual Dearborn concert, which would give the rapper a stage at a moment when mainstream touring opportunities have narrowed.
The mayor’s post did not specify a date, venue or budget for the proposed free event, and it remains unclear whether Macklemore has responded to the offer. The invitation does, however, reinforce Dearborn’s position as a city willing to publicly align itself with pro-Palestinian causes, even as those positions generate friction with major entertainment and sports institutions elsewhere in the country.
For Macklemore, the sequence is a stark one: removed from a stadium tour one day, courted by a city government the next. Whether that offer translates into an actual performance — or remains a social media gesture — will likely be answered in the coming weeks as both sides sort out logistics and logistics-adjacent politics.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/antisemitic-rapper-gets-thrift-shop-lifeline-from-u-s-muslim-enclave