In the midst of controversy over Macklemore being taken off Sheeran's latest stadium tour, he's seen a major change in his streaming fortunes — as have some artists who've left in solidarity.
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
This week: The biggest story in pop music involves the fallout over Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour, following“Free Palestine” comments made by the rapper at some of his first dates opening the stadium trek. We look at how his streaming numbers have been affected since, as well as those of some of the tour’s other former openers, and for Sheeran himself.
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Macklemore’s “Hind’s Hall” Has Biggest Streaming Day Since 2024
As much of the attention around Macklemore this week focuses on his continued unwavering support of the “Free Palestine” movement, it’s unsurprising that his 2024 single “Hind’s Hall” — titled after the hall at Columbia University renamed to honor a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces, and expressing his support of the university’s pro-Palestine protestors — would see increased attention.
Indeed, the song grew massively in streaming over both Monday (Sept. 14), when news of his removal from Ed Sheeran‘s Loop Tour broke, and Tuesday (Sept. 15), when Sheeran issued a statement in response, and each of the tour’s remaining openers also pulled out of the dates to come. After posting a little over 5,000 official on-demand U.S. streams on Sunday, that number exploded by 693% to 43,000 on Monday, and doubled to nearly 87,000 streams on Tuesday, according to early data provided by Luminate. That 87,000 number marks the best daily streaming total for “Hind’s Hall” in over two years, since it posted 88,000 streams on June 5, 2024, less than a month after its May 10 release.
“Hind’s Hall 2,” the song’s September 2024 sequel featuring Palestinian-American singer-songwriter Anees, Gaza-born rapper MC Abdul, and Palestinian-American author and comedian Amer Zahr, also saw big gains on a slightly smaller scale. After posting just under 2,000 streams on Sunday, that number got 11 times bigger by Tuesday, when it racked up over 22,000 streams.
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Total Macklemore Catalog Nearly Doubles in Streams
While the two “Hind’s Hall”s were the most aggressive movers in terms of percentage gains over the early week, the entirety of Macklemore’s catalog saw major gains as a result of the news cycle. Taken all together, his discography across both his solo work and his work alongside longtime DJ partner Ryan Lewis was up from just over one million official on-demand streams on Sunday to nearly two million streams on Tuesday, a gain of 97%, according to early data provided by Luminate. (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ Ray Dalton-featuring “Can’t Hold Us” subsequently re-entered the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA chart at No. 166 on Tuesday, bounding to No. 95 on Wednesday.)
Though Macklemore’s biggest chart hits — including his two Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s, “Can’t Hold Us” and the Wanz-featuring “Thrift Shop” — came in the days of his Ryan Lewis partnership, it’s his solo material that’s seeing the bigger gains this week. On Sunday, his solo material comprised just just 282,000 of million overall streams, but by Tuesday, it was up 172% to 767,000 of his two million overall streams, while his work alongside Lewis was up 68%.
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Aaron Rowe Has Best U.S. Streaming Day of Career, Beoga Also Way Up
Following Macklemore’s removal and Ed Sheeran’s response, Irish singer-songwriter Aaron Rowe was the next Loop Tour participant to issue a statement, declaring on Tuesday that despite his friendship with Sheeran, he would also be withdrawing for the tour, saying “I would lose all respect for myself to carry on as normal.”
Consequently, Rowe — who has reached the Irish Singles Chart, but whose commercial profile in the U.S. has been fairly minimal — had easily the best stateside streaming day of his career to date. Rowe amassed nearly 80,000 official on-demand U.S. streams across his catalog on Tuesday, according to early data provided by Luminate — which was not only up 2,665% from his under 3,000 streams the day before, but was also up 460% from his prior best U.S. streaming day, when he posted 14,000 streams on Aug. 7, 2026.
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Meanwhile, Beoga — the Irish folk group who served as Sheeran’s backing band on the tour, and who also bowed out on Tuesday in solidarity with Macklemore and the Palestinian people — also saw its numbers improve dramatically as a result of the news cycle. After scoring just over 2,000 streams on Monday, that number was up 1,092% to nearly 27,000 streams on Tuesday — the outfit’s best day on U.S. streaming since March 17.
Ed Sheeran’s Streaming Numbers Remain Neutral
If you wondered if the controversy Ed Sheeran now finds himself in as a result of Macklemore’s tour removal and his own ensuing statement would have a material effect on his streams one way or the other, the answer appears to be not yet. According to early data provided by Luminate — with numbers from a couple DSPs not yet accounted for — he pulled just over 3.7 million official on-demand U.S. streams on Tuesday, nearly dead even with the just-under 3.7 million he amassed on Monday (minus those same couple providers).
