Macklemore is crying foul after claiming nine US arenas, including four in California, pulled the plug on his “Free Palestine” benefit tour.
“We will build our own stages,” the defiant singer declared on Instagram. “They may own the arenas. But they do not own the people who fill them. And they never will.”
But Madison Square Garden offered a bruising explanation for the rejection, he’s simply not a big enough act.
“We have some of the busiest venues in the world with extremely limited availability and he’s not an arena level act,” an MSG Entertainment spokesperson told TMZ.
The cutting response challenged Macklemore’s claim that entertainment industry heavyweights were shutting him out over his Palestinian advocacy.
The Grammy winner, born Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, alleged the venues initially offered potential concert dates, only to yank them after learning the shows would benefit Palestinians.
“By mid-September, we received available dates at these arenas through the end of the year,” he wrote. “But once they found out these were my benefit show for Palestine, those dates were suddenly off the table.”
The California venues he named were Inglewood’s Intuit Dome and Kia Forum, downtown Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena and San Francisco’s Chase Center. Madison Square Garden and Brooklyn’s Barclays Center were also among the nine.
His proposed American shows would have followed sold-out benefit performances in Dublin, Paris and London. Macklemore responded to the alleged snubs with a lengthy broadside against billionaires, brand-conscious artists and an industry he accused of putting business relationships ahead of Palestinian lives.
“I’d rather lose every opportunity in this industry than spend another day protecting people who value their business relationships with Israel more than they value Palestinian human life,” he wrote.
The “Thrift Shop” rapper argued that wealthy gatekeepers wield too much control over which causes artists can champion and urged fellow performers to speak out despite potential career consequences.
“They forget that we buy their tickets. We fill their arenas. We build their empires. And we have the power to bring them down,” he wrote.
The booking battle follows his controversial September appearances opening for Ed Sheeran at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.
Macklemore called for a free Palestine and accused Israel of genocide in Gaza during those performances, prompting the Israeli-American Council to demand that Sheeran drop him from the tour.
Concertgoer Moshe Creditor told The Post that the political messaging derailed what was supposed to be a birthday celebration with his mother.
“I was completely disappointed, and it ruined what was supposed to be a great night,” he said.
Macklemore was subsequently removed from Sheeran’s US tour. Sheeran later said the decision was made by the concert promoter and venues.
Now, Macklemore says more benefit concerts are coming, even if the next stage looks considerably different.
“We’ll probably just take that shit outside where it belonged in the first place,” he wrote, pledging to continue working with artists and organizers to raise funds for Palestinians.
