Grammy Award-winning rapper Macklemore has announced a series of concerts under the banner of the Free Palestine Tour, days after being removed as an opening act on Ed Sheeran's Loop Tour following pro-Palestinian remarks he made onstage earlier this month.

"So, as you all know, my schedule freed up a bit," the rapper said upon announcing the tour on Thursday.

The American artist, whose real name is Benjamin Haggerty, said all proceeds from the tour will be donated to organisations supporting Palestinians and the wider movement. The tour launches in Dublin on 26 October, followed by Paris on 29 October and London on 30 October. US dates are also being organised, with additional tickets set to go on sale next week.

Macklemore, who has almost 40 million monthly listeners on Spotify, said he will be joined by other musicians and will announce their names soon. He acknowledged that several details were still being worked out due to how quickly the tour came together, adding: "But this is a moment of momentum, and there is work to be done."

In a statement, the 43-year-old rapper said the past weeks had revealed a broader shift in public consciousness. "If these last couple of weeks have shown us anything, it's that something has shifted over the last three years," he said. "There has been a collective awakening around Palestinian liberation, the power of billionaires that try to censor that call, and what we expect from artists right now. It's 2026. Being apolitical during a genocide doesn't work anymore."

He also addressed the wider implications of his removal from the Sheeran tour. "What happened to me is bigger than one artist or one stage," he said. "When the billionaire class can decide which voices are allowed on stage and which ones are too dangerous to hear, everyone should be paying attention."

The controversy began on 4 September at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where Macklemore was performing as one of Sheeran's opening acts. From the stage, he told the audience: "A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so that I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very, very dear to my heart: Free Palestine." He then performed a song dedicated to pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University.

He was removed from the tour on 14 September. Venue owner Robert Kraft, a Jewish-American billionaire who has donated to several Israeli causes, confirmed that Macklemore was barred from performing at his Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Kraft denounced what he described as the rapper's "broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery" and said allowing him to perform "would cross that line."

Macklemore alleged that Kraft subsequently contacted the owners of the remaining stadiums on the tour and persuaded them not to allow him to perform, and that Kraft told Sheeran the tour would not go ahead unless Macklemore was dropped. Neither Kraft nor Sheeran have commented on those specific allegations.

Sheeran said publicly that the decision to remove Macklemore was made by concert promoter Messina Touring Group, not by himself. His remarks prompted all of his remaining support acts to withdraw from the tour in solidarity, while ticket prices for the Loop Tour fell sharply.

Sheeran addressed the controversy directly during his set in Philadelphia last week. He said he had made "mistakes" in handling the fallout and apologised to fans. He described the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks as "horrific" and called the situation in Gaza "unjustifiable and disproportionate," characterising the conflict as "a humanitarian issue."

Macklemore said he had spent the past week reaching out to artists who had used their platforms to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, regardless of the consequences. "People are asking artists to show up, educate themselves and be in community," he said. "To use the stage for more than entertainment. To push back when the call for a Free Palestine is met with attempts to silence it."

English punk rap duo Bob Vylan expressed support for the tour in response to Macklemore's announcement on social media.