Pink scores massive career win as she announces history-making residency at The Sphere in Vegas... after pro-Palestine activists tried to cancel her over Ed Sheeran support

Pink is clapping back at the cancel culture club with a history-making residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

The So What singer announced her residency at the splashy arena via a social media announcement on Monday, a mere two months after she faced brutal backlash for slamming rapper Macklemore's 'pro-Palestine' speech that got him booted as the opening act on Ed Sheeran's Loop Tour.

'Makes me think of celebration. Makes me feel like I’m on top of the world,' the 47-year-old singer, born Alecia Moore, hyped of the gig that will make her the first-ever solo female pop artist to headline the $2.2 billion venue, following high-profile acts like U2 and Metallica. 

'This idea has been bubbling up for years. And I finally get to share it with all of you! Let’s celebrate!' she continued in the message to her 11.7 million followers on Instagram.

The residency, a series of nine shows,  will take place across a five-week period in September and October of next year. 

The Get This Party Started pop diva continued in her post, 'The highs, the lows, the new, the scary, the never been done before. For the first time, I’m giving a show a home and I hope you’ll visit. It’s my FIRST EVER residency. @spherevegas, 2027. I can’t wait to have you over.'

Pink ignited her feud with Macklemore when she reposted an Instagram Story from StopAntisemitism which slammed the rapper's performance at an Ed Sheeran concert earlier this fall. 

'Awful – Jewish fans bought tickets to see Ed Sheeran sing last night in NJ, not to be ambushed by Macklemore's anti-Israel propaganda,' the caption on StopAntisemitism's original post read.

'Instead, Macklemore walked onstage in a keffiyeh, shouted “Free Palestine,” accused Israel of a false “genocide,” and turned a mainstream event into a political nightmare against the Jewish state. Concertgoers are owed apologies and refunds.'

Days after she stoked controversy with the post, the three-time Grammy winner published an essay on Instagram that explained her reasoning for slamming Macklemore and clarified that she didn't completely support the pro-Israel message of the original poster. 

'I’ve been quiet in my own words for a week, which you know isn’t like me. So here they are,' she began her attempt to clarify her stance beyond a series of confrontational memes she reposted that appeared to be aimed at her critics.

'Last Sunday I reposted somebody else’s post about Macklemore’s set at Ed Sheeran’s show. It said things in words I didn’t write, and I wouldn’t have chosen all of them,' Pink wrote alongside a photo of herself gazing into a sunset. 'Then the comments came, and I did what I do when I’m hurt, which is post snarky memes and act like I’m fine. That’s on me.

'A repost isn’t a statement, and a meme isn’t a spine. Social media makes all of us cheap and fast, and we all know it,' she continued. 'But I’d rather be disagreed with for what I actually said than hated for what anybody else wrote, so let me say it.'

The singer declared: 'I was born a Jew. I didn’t pick it, and I’ve never hidden it. And this week a whole lot of people decided what I believe without asking me, without checking a single thing I’ve ever said or done, because a repost and the word “Jew” were apparently enough to fill in the rest. But let me fill it in... myself.

Pink clarified that she doesn't 'speak for Israel, or for any government. I never have.'

Pink explained that her beliefs were the same as they were after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on a music festival held on the border of the Gaza Strip, which has been occupied by Israel for nearly 60 years.

'Hamas is a terrorist organization. Palestinians deserve a future that honors their humanity and their aspirations. Protecting innocent life comes first, everywhere, and nobody should ever celebrate the death of a child. Anybody’s child,' she reiterated. 

'I’ve spent a decade as a UNICEF ambassador for kids who didn’t choose the country or the war they were born into, and I have grieved every one of them, on both sides of that fence. I didn’t do it from behind a screen; I went to those children and held them. I’m not going to litigate a complex war in an Instagram caption, and I’m not going to recite anybody’s slogan to earn back a follower.'

On Monday, November 9, many of her fans rushed to weigh in on Pink's upcoming shows at the Sphere, with some calling it a perfect venue for her legendary aerial acts that often showcase her flying on wires above gobsmacked concertgoers. 

'Well deserved! That will be a spectacular event. P!NK never disappoints,' one fan raved. 'She works hard, puts on a show, she’s fearless, can sing, has hits, isn’t afraid to cover great songs. Here for it!'

Other social media watchdogs, however, were less than pleased to see the news: 'Oh the Israeli lobby fought hard for this lmao,' one hater sniped, as another chimed in with, 'BUT I HUUUUUURD SHE WAS CANCELLED?'

One critic expressed their displeasure more bluntly: 'Not paying to see a racist who supports k*lling children.'

The Daily Mail has reached out to Pink's team for comment about the public reaction to her announcement.  

Meanwhile, on Saturday, Sheeran, 35, thanked loyal fans at his Tampa, Florida, tour stop for their support with video of him taking multiple bows before his cheering crowd.

'Thank you Tampa, thats(sic) the end of the North American stadium tour, see you soon Chile, Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico x,' he captioned the post.

Sheeran has one more performance scheduled in the United States – on November 9th in Yellow Springs, Ohio – before he jets off for Chile.

The tour will then take Sheeran to Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil before it ends in Estadio Ciudad de los Deportes in Mexico City on December 11.

It comes weeks after Sheeran and his tour were plunged into controversy after rapper Macklemore was dropped as an opener over pro-Palestine comments.

Macklemore was booted from Sheeran's tour after US stadium owner Robert Kraft accused him of hate speech for comments he made during two performances at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey in early September.

The recording artist, whose real name is Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, said on stage that every human being deserves the same freedom, and told the crowd he wanted people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to know they had not been forgotten.

He then performed his protest song Hind's Hall while images of the devastation in Gaza were projected on the big screens at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

Kraft subsequently banned Macklemore from performing at the Gillette Stadium near Boston, which is owned by his holding company, leading to his departure from Sheeran's tour.

After Macklemore was dropped, all of Sheeran's openers – Finneas, Lukas Graham and Aaron Rowe, as well as his backing band Beoga – announced they would be leaving the tour in solidarity with the rapper and Palestine.

Sheeran continued to receive backlash and apologized while performing in Philadelphia on September 19 and said he had made ‘mistakes’ in how he handled the fallout.

'This has put me in the middle of an important, passionate argument about freedom of speech on the most complex issue on the planet,' he said. 'What happened in Israel and at the Nova music festival on October 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain.

'What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate,' the Shape of You singer continued. 

'My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians' lives, of children's lives, and the systemic injustice we're seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked.'