On Saturday, singer songwriter Ed Sheeran addressed a Philadelphia crowd in his first show since dropping American rapper Macklemore from his tour.
Sheeran played a solo-led concert at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field after supporting acts and musicians withdrew from the tour and controversy continued to boil online.
“I’m used to my music being criticized and I’m always happy to take that,” he said onstage. “But this week the criticism was about something much more important and I had to take and make difficult decisions and I am making mistakes and I’m so so sorry.”
The controversy follows Sheeran’s decision to drop Macklemore from his 2026 Loop Tour following the rapper voicing his support for the Palestinian people during a New Jersey concert.
Macklemore’s comments—which called for the freeing of other countries like Lebanon, Congo, Cuba, Sudan, and Iran—were faced with opposition from billionaire Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft who demanded him to be removed from the tour, to which Sheeran complied.
Since then, supporting acts like American singer Finneas—Billie Eilish’s brother—and Danish band Lukas Graham dropped the tour in solidarity with Macklemore, with criticism of Sheeran continuing through the weekend.
Finneas wrote in an Instagram post, “Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed.”
During the Saturday show, Sheeran read what seemed to be a prepared statement to the crowd.
“I don’t want to disappoint fans and I never wanted to be an activist musician but this has 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 amid cheering from the crowd.
He added, “This is a humanitarian issue, and I can’t hide how I feel about it anymore. What happened in Israel at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate.”
Toward the end of the concert, he addressed his earlier remarks by apologizing to the crowd saying “I understand that people have children here, and I understand that families didn’t buy a ticket to hear that first bit of the show, but that was something I felt like I needed to say.”
