Jack Antonoff has called out Ed Sheeran for the way he handled he handled the controversy around his ‘Loop Tour’ – urging the singer to “stand the fuck up” against billionaires telling him what to do.
The controversy stems from Macklemore being dropped as a support act for Sheeran’s tour after making a speech calling for a “free Palestine”. After making his comments on-stage, Robert Kraft – who owns the Gillette Stadium and is also owner of the New England Patriots – spoke out about the situation, saying he found Macklemore’s speech “deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community”.
Following more disapproval from the likes of Pink and the Israeli American Council, the rapper was removed from the tour.
Since then, countless big names including Greta Thunberg, Massive Attack, Roger Waters, Dropkick Murphys, Amelia Dimoldenberg, Billy Bragg, Lorde and Hayley Williams have shown their support for Macklemore, and Ed Sheeran’s band and other tour support acts pulled out of the shows in solidarity with the rapper.
Now, Jack Antonoff has weighed in on the situation and criticised Sheeran for not standing up and defending Macklemore, but instead “letting a fucking billionaire tell you what to do”.
Jack Antonoff criticizes Ed Sheeran’s response to Macklemore’s “Free Palestine” comments in new @Guardian interview:
“[Ed Sheeran] missed a massive, beautiful opportunity there: just cancel the whole f*cking tour, then play for free outside each venue, raise a bunch of money,… pic.twitter.com/5YxTJFhPBz
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) October 26, 2026
Speaking to The Guardian recently, Antonoff defended Macklemore’s “Free Palestine” on-stage comments, saying that it is “not in any way a strange, uncomfortable or controversial thing to say, it’s a deeply human thing to say”.
As for how he would have responded in Sheeran’s position, the Bleachers frontman added: “They’re going to let some fucking promoter tell me what I can say? Don’t book me. I’ll play for free outside.”
He went on to say that Sheeran “missed a massive, beautiful opportunity” to use the controversy as a way to raise money for non-profit organisations – sharing that he could have said “Just cancel the whole fucking tour, then play for free outside each venue, raise a bunch of money, rather than let a fucking billionaire tell you what to do.”
“The reason it’s not an anomaly or niche issue is because we all live in a world where billionaires are constantly telling us what to do,” Antonoff added. “So stand the fuck up.”
Around the time the controversy began, Ed Sheeran spoke out about the situation, saying he was “not complicit” in the decision to kick Macklemore off the tour and “appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine” – seeing the “suffering and pain caused on both sides” as a “tragedy”. The ‘Shape Of You’ singer later returned to the stage in Philadelphia and apologised for “making mistakes”, before announcing more support acts.
Macklemore has since donated his entire $1million earnings from the tour to six organisations supporting Palestinians, and also kicked off a ‘Free Palestine Tour’, which has already sold out and included guest appearances from Kneecap, Hozier and more.
