Grammy-winning producer Jack Antonoff is publicly criticizing Ed Sheeran for dropping Macklemore from his Loop Tour after the rapper called for a “Free Palestine” during an opening set, saying Sheeran should have refused to bend to pressure from wealthy team owners rather than cut the rapper loose.
Antonoff, who fronts the band Bleachers and has produced hit records for Taylor Swift, made the comments in a recent interview with The Guardian, more than a month after the fallout began. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft was among a group of NFL team owners who reportedly threatened to bar Sheeran from performing in their stadiums if Macklemore stayed on the bill.
Antonoff said the willingness of artists to let billionaires dictate what they can and cannot say on stage should alarm anyone who values free expression.
“If you think it is [controversial] you’re lost in some other sauce that is so crazy. They’re going to let some f—ing promoter tell me what I can say? Don’t book me. I’ll play for free outside,” Antonoff told The Guardian.
He argued Sheeran had a chance to take a real stand instead of removing Macklemore from the tour.
“[Ed Sheeran] missed a massive, beautiful opportunity there: just cancel the whole f—ing tour, then play for free outside each venue, raise a bunch of money, rather than let a f—ing billionaire tell you what to do,” Antonoff said. “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. So stand the f— up.”
The controversy followed Sheeran to Pennsylvania, where he addressed it directly during a Philadelphia tour stop. Sheeran told the crowd, in part: “What happened in Israel and at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate.”
Several other opening acts, including Finneas, Aaron Rowe and Lukas Graham, withdrew from Sheeran’s tour in solidarity with Macklemore, who has since launched his own “Free Palestine Tour.” Antonoff, who has also expressed support for a free Palestine and is Jewish, praised Macklemore for speaking out, saying he has “felt way more emboldened to say it now.”
“It’s not in any way a strange, uncomfortable or controversial thing to say, it’s a deeply human thing to say,” Antonoff said.
Not everyone agrees Antonoff’s stance is about principle. Christian Toto, film critic and founder of Hollywood in Toto, told Fox News Digital that Antonoff’s comments reflect industry positioning rather than a genuine defense of speech rights, and that scrapping a tour would carry real costs.
“Jack doesn’t sound well-informed, either about Middle East politics or his own business,” Toto said. “If Sheeran scrapped his tour, how many workers would lose their jobs? And, if he did an alternative tour, how would they get paid? He knows it’s acceptable within his industry to blanketly bash billionaires, a lazy, thoughtless attack and do a variation of ‘Free Palestine.’ He’s trying to curry favor within his industry. Sadly, it might just work.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Sheeran and Macklemore for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
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