Who Macklemore Brought to Bercy

In September, the promoter of Ed Sheeran’s North American stadium tour removed Macklemore from the bill over his statements on Palestine; Sheeran said publicly that the call “was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine.” Macklemore’s answer was to book three European arenas himself, in one week, and give every ticket to Gaza. Dublin on October 26. Paris on October 29. London on October 30. All three sold out — the Accor Arena, by one account from the floor, in about ten minutes, with tickets held at 69 euros so the room could be full and the donation large.

The tour was called Free Palestine, billed as “Macklemore & Friends.” The friends are the story. In Paris, the man who lost an American stadium slot for two words assembled the lineup that Arab audiences in Europe rarely get to see on an arena stage: the godfather of Palestinian hip-hop, the biggest Palestinian-Jordanian pop star of her generation, a Syrian rapper from Berlin, a Palestinian-American DJ — and, unannounced, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories.

The running order

The evening ran three and a quarter hours and alternated music with testimony. It opened not with a song but with footage from Palestine and the Kuwaiti-American journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, speaking on the hundreds of Palestinian journalists killed since 2023. Then came Tamer Nafar, then Siba, then — “what a surprise,” as one fan’s review put it — Francesca Albanese, who spoke for over six minutes. Zeyne followed with two dancers; a recorded song arrived from the Al Hurriya Children’s Choir in Gaza; the American rapper Redveil and the French singer Pomme — the only French artist of the night — took their turns before a reel of video messages from Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, Cynthia Nixon, Javier Bardem and others.

The Dutch actress Carice van Houten — “we are witnesses to the genocide; we are not supposed to remain silent” — launched the night’s donation appeal. Aurora sang “The Seed.” The journalist Abby Martin told the room that artists must make a choice. Portugal. The Man, long-time supporters of Artists Against Apartheid, played covers rather than their own catalogue — “Don’t Look Back in Anger” among them — and handed their microphone to a Palestinian speaker who reminded the arena that Palestinians are not defined by their suffering. DJ Habibeats closed the warm-up with what the same review called “keffiyeh twirling excellence.”

Macklemore came on around 10 p.m.: “Chant” with Tones and I, “Thrift Shop,” “Same Love,” “Hind’s Hall,” the new “Where Is Our Love?”, and “Can’t Hold Us” under green and red confetti, with a leap into the crowd. At one point, after he referenced the French student protests, a section of Bercy began chanting “Macron, démission.” “All the artists, all the speakers that have come together with one common goal,” he said, “which is a free Palestine.”

Macklemore on stage (archive photo, 2013). In Paris he closed with “Can’t Hold Us” under green and red confetti. Photo: Jørund Føreland Pedersen / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Arab bill

Tamer Nafar needs the least introduction and got the earliest slot. The Lyd-born co-founder of DAM — the group that invented Palestinian hip-hop as a recorded form — has spent twenty-five years making the case that the mic is a weapon of memory; he arrived in Paris fresh from publishing his first book, the “imaginary memoir” 3GS.

Tamer Nafar (archive photo): the DAM co-founder opened the Paris bill. Photo: glichfield / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Zeyne is the bill’s commercial center of gravity: the Palestinian-Jordanian singer has spent two years converting regional stardom into global bookings, and brought choreography built on dabke lines to the Bercy stage. Siba, the Syrian rapper based in Berlin whose “DOUNANA” with producer Monkyman travelled far beyond the German scene, performed with what one attendee described as “incredible energy and furious lyrics.” And DJ Habibeats — Ibrahim Abu-Ali, the Palestinian-American DJ from the Bay Area whose Habibi’s House parties have made Arabic club music a global export, with family roots in Ramallah — played Dublin’s opening night and the Paris floor alike.

Zeyne brought dabke-rooted choreography to the Accor Arena. Photo: via the Ghurba Index.

The surprise speaker

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur whom governments have sanctioned and arenas have rarely hosted, was not on any published bill. She spoke for six minutes on sumud — “to stand firm through the storm, to remain rooted in land” — and on the complicity of Western governments, media and corporations, and asked the arena to raise its phone lights: “Bismillah, c’est la lumière,” turning a French far-right taunt into its opposite. One line travelled furthest: “Solidarity is the political declination of love.”

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, was the night’s unannounced speaker. Photo: LuciaMontanaroPhoto / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The money

Proceeds from all three nights flow through the Macklemore Fund for Palestine, administered by the US nonprofit Plus1, to twelve organisations named on the Accor Arena’s event page: Anera, Glia, Gaza Soup Kitchen, Taawon, HEAL Palestine, the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Middle East Children’s Alliance, Jewish Voice for Peace, Medical Aid for Palestinians, the Institute for Middle East Understanding, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, and UNRWA USA. During the show, Pomme invited the room to give while a QR code was projected behind her. The artists and speakers performed unpaid. As of publication, no totals have been released — a number worth returning for. Macklemore has separately pledged the $1 million he earned from the Sheeran tour to organisations supporting Palestinians.

The bookends

Dublin opened the run on October 26 with Hozier, Kneecap, the folk band Beoga, the Palestinian singer Lina Makoul, M1 of Dead Prez, and DJ Habibeats. London closed it on October 30 at OVO Arena Wembley before more than 12,500 people, with Paloma Faith, Vic Mensa, the Palestinian-Canadian singer Nemahsis, the poet Aja Monet, and an appearance by Greta Thunberg; fifty members of the House of Lords had urged that the show be banned. Macklemore performed the second half in a shirt reading “Free Marwan,” for the imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti. “I don’t believe that saying something is courageous,” he told the London crowd. “I believe that saying something is human. And those children in Gaza are our children.”

A US leg is expected. What Paris proved is simpler: a bill carrying Palestinian, Jordanian and Syrian artists — names that mainstream European promoters still treat as a risk — sold out a 15,000-seat arena faster than most pop tours, and the audience stayed three hours. The demand was never the question.