Ed Sheeran took the stage for his Loop tour on Saturday for the first time since Macklemore’s exit as an opener from the tour, and he wasted no time addressing the controversy, admitting he’s “making mistakes” in how he’s handling things. The “Shape of You” singer apologized to his fans before launching into his hit songs. Keep reading for more information.
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Ed Sheeran Breaks Down In Tears On Stage
On Saturday, September 19th, Sheeran appeared on stage for an 8pm start time, different from the scheduled 5:30pm start time, because no openers performed ahead of him. "This is not usually how I open a show, but before I play some songs tonight I hope it's OK if I say a few words about this last week," Sheeran said on stage as he began his show. "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… 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 sorry."
He went on to say that he doesn't want to be "an activist musician," but that this week in particular made it hard to stay neutral. "But this put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet," he said as his voice broke.
The Macklemore Controversy
During Macklemore's opening set at Ed Sheeran's MetLife Stadium concert earlier this month, he gave a political speech supporting Palestinians and performed his pro-Palestinian protest song. The act was immediately controversial: some fans accused Macklemore of turning the concert into a political rally and called some of the imagery and rhetoric he used "antisemitic." Others defended Macklemore and said he was using his platform to advocate for Palestinian human rights.
Macklemore was subsequently removed from the remaining dates of Sheeran's tour. The tour’s promoter, Messina Touring Group, said multiple venues had indicated they would not allow Macklemore to perform following his comments, while Sheeran said the decision was made by the promoter and venues, not by him. After his removal, the other supporting acts on the tour—including Finneas, Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe and Beoga—also withdrew in solidarity.
