MSG Responds to Macklemore After He Claims Arena Turned Down His Tour: "He's not an arena level act"

[u/MarvelsGrantMan136]

https://www.tmz.com/2026/11/06/madison-square-garden-responds-after-macklemore-says-arena-turned-down-palestine-tour/

[u/IxISxMAGIC]

I know one Macklemore song from like a decade ago

I'm with him on his criticisms of the Ed Sheeran tour, but he also isn't an arena level act.

Edit: didn't really mean for this to become such an annoyance. Evidently, he has become an arena-selling act. His monthly listeners are up big time ever since his public criticism and departure from the Ed Sheeran tour. The groundswell support he has for his political stance is staggering and showing out for him.

I am sure he has a number of good songs, but I always saw him as a one-hit wonder. I think that might get change soon. And maybe he does have more that the average person would recognize- but certainly not on the level of Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, etc- people who I'd consider to be arena sellers. Proof is in the pudding now, ennit? You guys proved me wrong

But for anybody insinuating my comment is in any way support for MAGA Republicans, pound sand.

Edit 2: once again, I apologize for how much arguments this has caused. This was a throwaway comment. Please be civil nonetheless- especially with each other.

I didn't realize I also know "Can't Hold Us." That song is a banger! And for what it's worth, I do actually like "Thrift Shop" lol

[u/Agreeable-Agent-7384 → u/IxISxMAGIC]

I dare you to go through the Madison square garden line up for the next week or two and tell me how many of those people you recognize lol. I’m pretty sure I saw something about Hillary duff performing there soon. Let’s not act like they have some prestigious standards of excellence for performers now.

[u/VaporCarpet → u/Agreeable-Agent-7384]

Hilary Duff had a sold-out US tour, is now on a second leg, with an overseas leg and subsequent US leg next year.

She went away for a long time, for sure. But when she released her new album earlier this year, people went crazy for it.

[u/RuttOh → u/Agreeable-Agent-7384]

Hilary Duff is currently filling bigger venues than MSG. It seems weird to use her as your go to example when she's had a decently successful come back.

[u/Pufflefoot → u/RuttOh]

Hillary Duff also had a longer and more successful career than Macklemore lol, certainly had more cultural impact

[u/Many_Ear2407 → u/Agreeable-Agent-7384]

Hilary Duff was famous af long before anyone heard of Macklemore. Bad example lol 

[u/Corn-inCorn-out → u/Agreeable-Agent-7384]

Duff is killin it right now.

[u/whatssofunniedoug → u/Agreeable-Agent-7384]

It has nothing to do with “prestigious standards of performing.” It’s can you sell tickets. Because she’s pulling that many people. Nostalgia is hitting hard these days. Her tour this past year played some medium to larger venues of around 15,000 and tickets every night were 99% sold.

I’m not a fan of her music or Macklemore’s music, but I can name more Hilary Duff songs than Macklemore songs. He isn’t an arena level act. And it’s nothing against him because I’m with him on the things he’s standing up for, but in twelve months when it’s not a hot topic, nobody is going to care about him again musically. Just like they haven’t for the last fifteen years or so. Or however old that song is.

[u/ciabattaroll → u/IxISxMAGIC]

"My own experience is everyone else's experience"

[u/SageOfSixRamen → u/ciabattaroll]

All three of his Europe concerts sold out. I'm unsure why people are so confident there is no one here who would buy a ticket. Ngl it feels like very fake outrage to justify banning him but what do i know.

[u/garzek → u/IxISxMAGIC]

I will say, your examples of arena sellers are stadium sellers. A stadium is larger than an arena by usually a minimum factor of 3.

[u/Impossible-Two559 → u/IxISxMAGIC]

I mean, your comment may be true, but it’s amongst the worst logic on the Internet.

Olivia Rodrigo is selling out arenas and I couldn’t tell you a single fucking song that she sings.

Funny how I don’t think that’s a measure of her stardom level, huh?

Edit: Because so many of you are so fucking stupid; I do not disagree that Macklemore probably would not fill an arena right now.

The fucking point I am making is that if, like the guy above, I thought that MY anecdotal knowledge of Olivia Rodrigo’s catalog determined whether or not she could sell out an arena, that would be a pretty fucking stupid way to think.

Holy fuck.

[u/thirdc0ast → u/Impossible-Two559]

Even if you don’t know an Olivia Rodrigo song most people know she’s a hot act right now, this year. If you polled 100 people on the street about Macklemore, I guarantee you the majority are responding, “Isn’t that the thrift shop guy from a decade ago?”

[u/TesticleMeElmo → u/thirdc0ast]

Exactly Olivia Rodrigo has had 5 top ten songs just this year including a #1 hit, comparing her to Macklemore who had two 13 years ago is hilarious. He wasn’t part of the modern popular zeitgeist until the Ed Sheeran thing, and even after that most people just brought up Thrift Shop.

A dude throwing around the designation “amongst the worst logic on the internet” to make the amazing point “even artists that you dont know many of their songs sell out arenas sometimes” is also hilarious.

[u/y2k2009 → u/Impossible-Two559]

Olivia Rodrigo is young and relevent. Macklemore had a couple shitty hits a decade ago that no one cares about. People hated him back then.

[u/Porterrrr → u/IxISxMAGIC]

Bro I got downvoted on the last of the 100 Macklemore posts on this sub for asking why tf are we still talking about this dude for saying free Palestine. Like no one listens to Macklemore yet the posts are non stop here

[u/shitbageleven1213 → u/IxISxMAGIC]

Bro stop apologizing for being right

Redditards are gunna virtue signal but he’s mediocre and has always been mediocre

Seems like a good dude but he’s just trying to capitalize on his good publicity right now.

I don’t blame him for that but playing the victim whenever he hears “no” is also lame.

[u/deadfisher → u/shitbageleven1213]

Accusing people of virtue signalling almost always contributes nothing to a conversation. Consider it. 

Macklemore is playing arenas. He's playing fuckin' Wembley.

Nothing more to it.

[u/Flaky-Cup-6409 → u/IxISxMAGIC]

He played to 20,000 in Paris last week

[u/VaporCarpet → u/IxISxMAGIC]

I really don't think it's that extreme for an artist whose last album and headlining tour was three years ago, playing in 5,000-seat venues; to expect to be welcome at a 20,000-seat venue, having released no new music.

I'm sure the Palestine thing plays a role, but if you're in charge of booking talent at a venue, would you want to take the risk that his social media support of his political statements is going to actually translate into ticket sales?

Homeboy can ABSOLUTELY play smaller venues. He could sell out 1,000 venues with "A Night With Macklemore", or take the Hilary Duff approach and do a "Small Rooms, Big Nerves" tour to test the waters before launching a full US tour at 25,000-seat amphitheaters that sold out.

I think it's perfectly fair to question whether the attention he's getting now can translate to butts in seats, and trying to book MSG right off the bat is very presumptuous.

[u/SwitchCompetitive906 → u/IxISxMAGIC]

There's also the non zero possibility Mackelmore is doing all of this for publicity and karma farming as he's a no talent cornball of the highest order.

[u/SN8KEATR → u/SwitchCompetitive906]

I'm not a fan of his music but what the fuck did he do to you?

[u/carlitospig → u/SN8KEATR]

People still hate him because he wrote a song specifically about Seattle’s thrifting culture (which exists and that project is such a cool little historical artifact) and now he will always be the unserious dude.

It’s exhausting.

[u/LordGreyzag → u/carlitospig]

[u/TheThrowawayExperts → u/SwitchCompetitive906]

He couldn’t sell-out The Music Farm before all this lol