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
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.”
Ed hablando sobre el escenario B y los musicos de la banda:
“Se ha hablado mucho de que los teloneros no están esta noche y también de que los músicos con los que suelo tocar en el escenario no están aqui
Para ser honesto, en esta parte del concierto suelo estar en un gran…
— Ed Sheeran Uruguay 🩷 (@EdSheeranUY) September 20, 2026
Ed Sheeran introduces the musicians replacing Beoga, who dropped out of his tour in solidarity with Macklemore, in Philadelphia. pic.twitter.com/AEINQPqKqq
Before the big finale, though, Sheeran took a seat on the edge of the stage and made his longest statement of the night, which he read from a teleprompter, per .
“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 helped him make the decision to stay on tour. “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 said.
Sheeran then concluded: “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,” he said.
📲| Ed’s full speech thanking for the support:
‘The last week of my life was been one of the worst weeks… tonight has been honestly the best show of my life’
‘In this situations you really find out who your friends are… people I’ve knew from years ago are backing away’ pic.twitter.com/7iZIxrcujC
— Ed Sheeran Access (@AccessEdSheeran) September 20, 2026
He’s since lost over 200,000 Instagram followers, while Macklemore has gained over 1.6million.
Meanwhile, recent Sheeran support acts BIIRD and Myles Smith also came out in support of the rapper. Irish trad-folk band BIIRD wrote that “we stand unequivocally behind every word [Macklemore] said,” while Smith said that “what Palestinians are enduring is devastating and impossible to look away from. No child, no family, no innocent person should have to live under bombing, displacement, hunger, grief or fear.”
Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters waded into the debate to call Sheeran a “little prick” while praising Macklemore for doing “the right thing”, and Massive Attack also spoke on the controversy: “’Neutrality’ in the face of the slaughter of more than 20,000 children can never be neutrality”.
Sheeran is yet to respond to his support acts pulling out and these comments.
Elsewhere, Macklemore donated his entire $1million earnings from the tour to Palestinians – with Kraft matching with $2million to “aid in the region.”