Ed Sheeran needed to address the situation before he could start playing guitar. It wasn’t how he wanted to start his show, and he’s made it abundantly clear that the last thing he wants around him is controversy or, in his words, to be an “activist musician.”
But here he was, at the first show after his opener and friend Macklemore was kicked off the tour, following pressure by a group of venue owners led by Robert Kraft who took issue with Macklemore’s statement of support toward Palestine. That led to the rest of the tour’s openers and even Sheeran’s backing band for the tour dropping off the tour in solidarity with Macklemore — all of which became a huge news story and PR nightmare for the usually very un-controversial Sheeran. And though he had already made one highly scrutinized statement online while the news story was at its most potent, Sheeran felt the need to address the crowd at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday night (Sept. 19) in person, before the show really started.
“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 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,” he 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 that have opposing views. Everyone here can stand by people that they don’t agree with on everything, and they can all agree on singing these songs. And these songs are about love, hope and unity.”
The crowd in Philadelphia – a nearly full Lincoln Financial Field – enjoyed that, and there was little sign of any controversy from that point on in the stadium. Any protests outside of the venue had disappeared by the time most of the crowd had shown up, and if there was heightened security as reports had suggested, it wasn’t obvious. There were maybe a few extra news crews reporting on the show as people filed in and out, but if Sheeran hadn’t brought it up, the crowd did not seem like one particularly anxious about any elephant in the room.
Sheeran’s “Loop Tour” centers around his performances mostly entirely alone, using a loop pedal to create backing tracks each night and mostly spending time on stage alone. But now without openers and the backing of Irish band Beoga, who pulled out of the tour out of solidarity with Macklemore and empathy toward Palestinians, Sheeran’s solitariness was magnified. At the break in the show where he would have typically gone to a separate “B stage” setup, Sheeran explained that 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.
Without directly calling out Beoga — and assuming the crowd either knew the full story or didn’t need to know that detail if they weren’t privy to it — he introduced his backing musicians for the evening, led by violinist Alicia Enstrom, who has toured with Sheeran in the past, and proceeded with the section of the show that included the Ireland-set ÷ hit “Galway Girl.” Sheeran didn’t elaborate whether this last-minute backing band would stick around for later dates on the tour.
It was mostly business as usual after that first statement, with Sheeran only occasionally letting on that things were different. Before introducing “Old Phone,” he joked that “until this week,” the only time he appeared in the news was if he was in court. Earlier, he jokingly asked if the crowd enjoyed the openers. Such comments were subtle enough that if an audience member, especially one of the many kids in the crowd, weren’t in on it, it might just go over their heads and they’d move on. If you didn’t get it, don’t worry about it.
Before the big finale, though, Sheeran took a seat on the edge of the stage and made his lengthiest statement of the night, even longer than the one at the beginning, which was clearly being carefully referenced from a teleprompter. This one was a little more off-the-cuff and maybe even slightly less prepared.
“The last week of my life has been one of the worst weeks of my life, and today has been one of the weirdest days of my life. Tonight has been honestly the best show of my life,” Sheeran declared. “I really didn’t know whether this tour would carry on, I really didn’t know whether I’d get on stage again, whether I even wanted to be an artist at all. But, you know, in these situations, you really find out who your friends are. And it’s been a weird week. I just feel like everything happened very quickly. And the whole time I have so many people telling me to cancel this tour, and I have so many people falling out of my life that I’ve known for years and years and years, people just kind of backing away.”
Sheeran said that the reaction from his audience strengthened his resolve to make sure the show, and tour, went on.
“I saw ticket sales for this gig, and I didn’t see cancellations, I saw people buying tickets. I’m there, and everyone’s telling me to cancel, and I’m feeling all of my friends and family and people I know abandon me. And I look at the end of the week, and I see 50,000 people who haven’t abandoned me. People will say what they want, but I’m doing this for you. I love you. I love this. I love the unison we have here. I love the feeling this concert brings. I love bringing people together of all races, all religions, all political ideas.”
He finished by leaning back into something reflective of his original statement online and the commitment to unity — apologizing for the fact that he had to make a statement and take something resembling a stance at all, in his eyes complicating what should be a simple night of music free of any argument or tension.
“A lot of people here have differing opinions, and we’ve had a great night. And you are standing next to people and dancing with people who you may disagree with. And you probably understand them better by being, you know, one and love. I have had so many opinions on this. But the root of it is love. And if this tour ends, love doesn’t win. Love doesn’t win. You know? I can’t let you guys down. That’s why I’m here tonight, on my own, for you guys.”
Sheeran then wiped his eyes, stood up, and then he went into the last few songs of his set, complete with pyrotechnics, like nothing had even happened.
