Ed Sheeran returned to his ‘Loop’ tour after a week of sustained controversy – check out what went down below.
Sheeran’s tour is now without a single opening act after Macklemore was dropped from the tour over his impassioned “free Palestine” speech made while opening for Sheeran at New Jersey’s Gillette Stadium.
The speech prompted calls for his removal from figures like Pink and the Israeli American Council, and Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft later said he found Macklemore’s speech “deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community,” resulting in his dismissal.
Since then, all of Sheeran’s support acts and backing band have dropped out of the tour, with FINNEAS, Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe and Beoga all making statements supporting Macklemore.
Sheeran has spoken out about the situation, saying he was “not complicit” and was “appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine” and sees the “suffering and pain caused on both sides” as a “tragedy.”
Last night (September 19), the singer returned to his tour for the first time since the controversy, and addressed the crowd at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field before the show began.
“I’m used to my music being criticized, and I’m always happy to take that because I’m lucky a lot of you like my stuff, and to be honest, I’m surprised,” Sheeran said. “I’m not surprised that other people don’t. It’s normal. But this week, the criticism was about something much more important, and I’ve had to take and make difficult decisions, and I am making mistakes, and I’m so, so sorry.
“What happened in Israel at the Nova music festival on October 7th was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic, unjustifiable, and disproportionate,” Sheeran 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.
“I am already speaking to people across the spectrum to work out how to make a contribution that helps victims of these terrible times, and listening and learning because I do not know enough,” I concluded. “I honestly am so grateful that you’re here tonight with me. This concert is still a place where everyone is welcome, and everyone here can stand beside people who have opposing views. Everyone here can stand by people who don’t agree with on everything, and they can all agree on singing these songs. And these songs are about love, hope and unity.”
Ed Sheeran addresses the controversy surrounding Macklemore’s removal from his tour and says, “What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable.”
“Before I play some songs tonight, I hope it’s okay if I say a few words about this last week,” Sheeran said at the top of… pic.twitter.com/ZhtujolkKK
— Variety (@Variety) September 20, 2026
At the break in the show where he would have typically gone to a separate “B stage” setup, Sheeran explained that part of the show had been scrapped for safety, as he was concerned about “what might happen if [he] stood in the middle” of the crowd. “I didn’t know if they were going to throw things at me. I didn’t know if people would be angry with me,” he said.
Sheeran went on to say: “There are certain songs that just don’t work as well with the loop pedal and when my friends pulled out of this show, I thought: ‘How am I going to keep the show the same? How am I going to get musicians to come on stage with me in a week when no one wants to come on stage with me?’
“I called a friend of mine who is an amazing person and I toured with her all last year and I said: would you come on stage with me? And she said yes,” he added. “I asked her if she had musician friends and she said yes. And they’ve had three days to learn these songs. And they agreed to come on stage knowing that the world might hate them too for coming on stage with me.”
