Macklemore says nine U.S. arenas declined to host his tour after learning the shows would be financial charity drives for Palestine. Madison Square Garden disputes his explanation, citing limited availability and saying he is not an arena-level act, The Hollywood Reporter reports via Yahoo.
The nine venues he named include Madison Square Garden and the Kia Forum. The two sides now offer different reasons for why the shows never got booked.
In a November 6 Instagram statement, the rapper said his team had received available dates at the arenas through the end of 2026 by mid-September.
“But once they found out these were my benefit shows for Palestine, those dates were suddenly off the table,” he said. “The doors were closed. The conversations were all different, but the result was the same.”
The nine arenas he listed were Madison Square Garden, Prudential Center, Barclays Center, UBS Arena, Intuit Dome, Kia Forum, Crypto.com Arena, Chase Center, and Climate Pledge Arena.
“In over twenty years of touring, I’ve never experienced anything like this,” he added. He said activists and artists who support Palestinians have faced consequences for decades and that “many have paid a far greater price than I have.”
MSG Gives Its Explanation
A representative for Madison Square Garden answered with a one-line statement: “We have some of the busiest venues in the world with extremely limited availability and he’s not an arena level act.”
READ: Taika Waititi Fires Back at Critics After Klara and The Sun Flops
The Tour Grew Out of an Earlier Dispute
The rapper announced the FPT tour in September after he was removed from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour. Robert Kraft and several other NFL owners told Sheeran they would not host his shows if he stayed on the bill.
Kraft defended the call in a September statement. He cited “material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran’s shows in New Jersey” and what he called “a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery,” and said his participation in the September 25 and 26 concerts at Gillette Stadium “would cross that line.”
Sheeran later said the removal was the “promoter’s decision.”
Macklemore’s Wider Message
In his new statement, he framed the arena refusals as a free speech issue. “We’ve reached a point where a handful of billionaires can decide which causes are acceptable, which voices are welcome, and which human lives are worth defending,” he wrote.
“I’d rather lose every opportunity in this industry than spend another day protecting people who value their business relationships… more than they value… human life,” he added.
Plans to Build Their Own Stages
Macklemore said he is still looking for ways to bring the benefit shows to the United States, possibly outdoors. “We will build our own stages,” he said. “They may own the arenas. But they do not own the people who fill them.”
As for this author, consider me a little skeptical about the likelihood Macklemore actually builds real venues for concerts.
For now, the dispute rests on two explanations: Macklemore ties the refusals to the message of the tour, and MSG points to its calendar and its view of his drawing power. Considering the concerts are canceled, guess which explanation is winning out on the stage we call “reality”?
UP NEXT: Jack Nicholson Has Disappeared from Hollywood But An Actor Friend Says It’s For a Reason
