Ed Sheeran has said he will not be drawn into a public argument over the Gaza war after rapper Macklemore claimed that Robert Kraft, the owner of Gillette Stadium, personally told Sheeran that Macklemore would not be allowed to perform there.
Sheeran responded that removing the US rapper was the promoter’s decision. The dispute was followed by a sharp fall in his social-media following: 150,000 accounts unfollowed him the next day and another 98,000 did so a day later.
As of September 24, Sheeran’s follower count stood at 47.2 million, about half a million below the level a week earlier. In a statement, he described the Hamas attack in Israel and the events at the October 7 music festival as horrific, while calling the situation in Gaza catastrophic, unjustifiable and disproportionate.
The exchange has linked a concert-booking dispute to the wider debate over artists’ public positions on the war. The people involved have given different accounts of the decision, and no further details about the promoter’s role were provided in the material.