Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, has reportedly invited Macklemore to perform a free concert in the Arab-majority city after the rapper was removed from Ed Sheeran’s tour following an anti-Israel rant on stage.
Macklemore — who was recently dropped as British pop star Ed Sheeran’s opening act after an anti-Israel tirade — has now received an offer to perform in a city that is home to one of the country’s highest concentrations of Muslims and Arab Americans.
“If they don’t want you performing in their stadiums, you’re always welcome in Dearborn,” Hammoud wrote in a Monday X post, responding to a Variety headline reporting that Macklemore had been booted from Sheeran’s tour after going on a “Free Palestine” rant.
“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 Dearborn mayor added. “We stand with you and for a free Palestine. Let’s make it happen.”
Macklemore — whose real name is Benjamin Haggerty — has yet not responded to Hammoud’s offer as of Tuesday evening.
While performing ahead of Sheeran, a keffiyeh-clad Macklemore reportedly told the crowd, “A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: ‘Free Palestine.’”
“I said, ‘Free Palestine!’ I want those words to be loud and clear, so that people all the way in Gaza to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten about them,” the “Thrift Shop” rapper further exclaimed.
After that, Macklemore performed his 2024 song, “Hind’s Hall” — which accuses Israel of “genocide” over its response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack — while images of the war in Gaza were displayed on screens.
Moreover, “Hind’s Hall” was also the unofficial, temporary new name given to Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall by student protesters during anti-Israel demonstrations on campus.
Last summer, Columbia University reached an agreement with the Trump administration to settle allegations that the school failed to stop antisemitism on campus, where pro-Palestine, anti-Israel demonstrations ran wild following the mass murder of Jews in Israel by Hamas.
Sheeran, meanwhile has insisted that dropping Macklemore — who was scheduled to play eight more shows with the British pop star in the U.S. before he was axed — was “the promoter’s decision,” not his.
Alana Mastrangelo-Wrask is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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