The front page of the Iran-friendly media outlet Al Mayadeen featured multiple articles and videos on Thursday promoting Seattle rapper Macklemore’s ongoing feud with former touring partner Ed Sheeran, which erupted after tour organizers reportedly removed Macklemore for “pro-Palestinian” propaganda during his performances.
The “Arts & Culture” section of Al Mayadeen’s front page on Thursday featured four stories, three of them favorable articles about Macklemore attacking Sheeran for refusing to condemn Israel and support Macklemore’s use of his platform for extreme political statements. The page also featured a video titled “Dropped from Sheeran’s tour over Palestine: Macklemore says it was ‘most successful tour.’”
WATCH — Rapper Macklemore Says “F*ck America” at Concert to Raise Funds for Palestinians:
The most recent story highlighted Macklemore’s announcement that he would donate $1 million to “Palestinian support groups.” Among those Macklemore listed as recipients of his donation in a social media statement was the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), a notorious hotbed of jihadist support that has been linked to the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas. The United Nations revealed in August 2024 that it had reason to believe at least nine UNRWA employees participated in the genocidal October 7, 2023, attack on civilians in Israel, which killed an estimated 1,200 people and resulted in widespread rape, torture, abductions, mutilations, and the desecration of corpses.
Al Mayadeen’s coverage described Macklemore as being pulled from the Ed Sheeran tour “after he voiced support for Palestine during a performance at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey earlier this month.” The article omitted that Macklemore pausing his concert to deliver a political tirade against Israel prompted outrage and a backlash against many who went to the concert for headliner Ed Sheeran and were uncomfortable with being presented with anti-Israel propaganda during the show.
U.S. rapper, singer, dancer and DJ, Benjamin Haggerty, known as Macklemore, performs at the Goldencoast Rap Festival in Corcelles-les-Monts, near Dijon, central-eastern France, on August 30, 2026. (Photo by ARNAUD FINISTRE / AFP via Getty Images)
In a separate article, Al Mayadeen highlighted Islamist and far-left voices calling for music fans to boycott Ed Sheeran for issuing a statement in which he refused to offer support for the “pro-Palestinian” cause and defended his right to have a public image as a musician without taking political positions on controversial issues. The article praised the Seattle rapper for supporting “a boycott of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest over the inclusion of ‘Israel,’” an issue entirely unrelated to the Ed Sheeran controversy, while asking, “Is Ed Sheeran apolitical or selective?” The outlet criticized Sheeran for having previously expressed support for Ukrainian civilians brutalized by the ongoing Russian invasion of that country.
The video Al Mayadeen promoted on its pages featured Macklemore’s anti-Israel statements during the tour that ultimately led to his departure from the incident, as well as images of Macklemore wearing a keffiyeh and unrelated images allegedly of Palestinians in Gaza, used as a backdrop for a summary of the American entertainment news story.
WATCH:
Al Mayadeen is a Lebanese news network recognized internationally for its pro-Iran, pro-Hezbollah, and anti-American bias. It regularly refers to the nation of Israel in quotes (“Israel“) to emphasize the editorial stance that the nation does not exist and is not legitimate. It also regularly provides positive coverage of regimes antagonistic to the United States that are not directly involved in Middle East politics, such as Cuba and North Korea.
Outside of issues directly related to the Middle East or anti-American activism, Al Mayadeen does not typically provide in-depth coverage of the American and greater Western entertainment industry. The outlet’s coverage of Macklemore, specifically, appears to have begun in 2024, when the rapper released a song honoring the violent pro-Hamas takeover of Columbia University’s campus to condemn Israel following the October 7 massacre.
Macklemore first rose to national prominence in the United States in the early 2010s as part of the duo “Macklemore & Ryan Lewis,” whose joint album The Heist, spawned multiple Billboard hits in 2013, including “Can’t Hold Us,” “Thrift Shop,” and “Same Love.” While the success was enough to earn Macklemore a guest visit on Sesame Street, it also sparked a backlash from observers who lamented that Macklemore had temporarily become the face of hip-hop in America, a genre originating in the black American community. Further outrage was fanned when Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, at the time known for her popular song “Fancy,” posted a now-deleted photo on Twitter alongside Macklemore titled “the king and queen of rap.”
The Seattle rapper addressed the backlash in a 2014 interview, stating, “White, liberal people want to be nice. We don’t want to be racist. We want to be, ‘Oh, we’re post-racial. We don’t want to talk about white privilege and it’s all good, right?’ It’s not the case. We have to get past that awkward stage of the race conversation, step up, and just have it.” He later addressed the topic with the 2016 song “White Privilege II” and, while the success of The Heist has eluded him, has consistently released politically charged songs ever since.
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