The mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, has invited rapper Macklemore to perform a free concert in the city after he was dropped from Ed Sheeran's US tour over pro-Palestinian remarks. Mayor Abdullah H Hammoud publicly offered his support on social media, saying the city would sponsor the show, in a gesture that highlights the political sensitivity surrounding artists' statements on the Israel-Gaza conflict and the backlash faced by performers who speak out.

The controversy began on 4 September when Macklemore addressed the crowd at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, declaring support for "Free Palestine" and performing his protest song Hind's Hall, named after a young Palestinian girl killed in Gaza. Several US venues subsequently barred him from continuing as Sheeran's opening act, and he says Sheeran's team then dropped him from the tour entirely. Hammoud, Dearborn's first Arab-American and Muslim mayor, framed the invitation as a stand for free expression and Palestinian statehood, while Sheeran separately said he would remain personally apolitical and denied the removal would affect the rest of his tour.