DETROIT — After he was kicked off of Ed Sheeran's tour for saying "free Palestine" on stage during a New Jersey tour stop, Macklemore has been invited to perform in Dearborn by Mayor Abdullah Hammoud.

"Hey @macklemore, if they don't want you performing in their stadiums, you're always welcome in Dearborn," Hammoud said on X on Sept. 14. "Come put on a show here. We'll make it a free concert, sponsored by the City, and help make it one of the best around. We stand with you and for a free Palestine. Let's make it happen."

The Seattle rapper was dropped from Ed Sheeran's tour on Sept. 14 following a speech he made on stage at East Rutherford, New Jersey's MetLife Stadium during his opening performance for Sheeran on Sept. 4.

"A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: 'Free Palestine.' I said, 'Free Palestine!'" Macklemore said onstage at the show, according to Variety. "I want those words to be loud and clear, so that people all the way in Gaza to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten about them."

He then performed his 2024 single "Hind's Hall," which is about the pro-Palestine protesters at New York's Columbia University who occupied an academic building on campus following the 2024 killing of 5-year-old Hind Rajab.

The performance made waves, and the ripple effect has resulted in the artist's removal from the tour.

In a statement to Rolling Stone, the Sheeran tour's U.S. promoter, Messina Touring Group, said: "As the concert promoter for Ed Sheeran's U.S. Loop Tour, we have been notified by venues on the upcoming U.S. tour dates that they will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup, which would result in the cancellation of the tour and impact hundreds of thousands of fans. After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates."

The "Thrift Shop" hitmaker was scheduled to perform at eight of the 10 remaining concerts on Sheeran's tour, including Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Robert Kraft, who owns the New England Patriots as well as Gillette Stadium, said in a statement on Sept. 14 that Macklemore's removal was both due to his comments, "and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community."

In a message posted to Instagram on Sept. 14, Macklemore said the remarks he made during his performance were no different than those he's been making on stage for years.

"So why is it an issue now? Because I'm sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America," he said in his post. "At a certain level of exposure, 'Free Palestine' becomes too much of a risk."

He also said he doesn't blame Sheeran for the fallout, "but as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can't change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened."

Sheeran's tour played Ford Field on Aug. 29. Macklemore was not a part of the concert.

The nearly three-hour show saw Sheeran, 35, performing a set of songs from across the spectrum of his career.

Following the concert, six people were injured, two seriously, after an accident during the loadout of the show.

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