Ed Sheeran has been accused of “bowing to the mob” after apologising to fans over his response to an Israel-Palestine controversy that has put his tour under mounting pressure.
The 35-year-old British singer has faced intense criticism since removing rapper Macklemore from the opening line-up for his Loop tour. The decision followed pro-Palestinian remarks Macklemore made during Sheeran’s New Jersey concerts earlier this month.
Following Macklemore’s removal, Sheeran’s other opening acts — Finneas, Lukas Graham and Aaron Rowe — along with his backing band Beoga, said they would also depart the tour in support of the rapper and the Palestinian cause.
During his concert in Philadelphia on Saturday night, Sheeran used an autocue to deliver a statement in which he acknowledged that he had made “mistakes” in the way he handled the dispute.
The singer also appeared to soften his earlier pledge to keep politics out of his performances, describing the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic and unjustifiable” while condemning Hamas’s October 7 attacks as “horrific”.
Piers Morgan later shared a recording of the speech on X. Although he said he agreed with Sheeran’s assessment that the October 7 attacks were terrible and Israel’s response disproportionate, Morgan accused the singer of being pressured into speaking publicly and criticised his use of an autocue.
Sheeran told the Philadelphia audience that he had ultimately decided to continue with the tour after seeing ticket sales rise. “Everyone’s telling me to cancel and I’m feeling all of my friends and family and people I know abandon me,” he said, adding that 50,000 people at the end of the week had shown they had not abandoned him.
While the political dispute has increasingly overshadowed the tour, fans gathering outside the Philadelphia venue said they remained determined to enjoy the concert and the music.
Ed Sheeran has been branded a “bullied puppet” after apologising to fans over his handling of the controversy threatening to derail his tour
Some supporters echoed Morgan’s criticism, with one person writing online that Sheeran’s public relations team should be dismissed and arguing that the singer should not have been forced to address the issue because of “a very small mob of loudmouths”.
Another critic said Sheeran had spent years focusing on performing and accused him of making the situation worse by appearing to give in to pressure.
However, another X user argued that reading from a teleprompter did not mean Sheeran was indifferent to the issue.
“Ed is a singer. Not a politician. Not a news anchor,” the supporter wrote, noting that he does not spend his life preparing statements about one of the world’s most politically sensitive conflicts.
The post continued that asking the singer to discuss Israel and Gaza without preparation in front of 50,000 people, after a week that had shaken his tour, was entirely different from asking him to perform one of his songs. In that context, the writer said, using an autocue suggested he was worried about choosing the wrong words rather than that he did not care.
Another supporter said Sheeran should firmly refuse to be drawn into pressure from either side, arguing that he could step away from the controversy and allow his music to speak for itself.
A further comment suggested that Sheeran was never likely to satisfy everyone, while criticising the tour’s “guest” and backing band for leaving him exposed during the dispute.
Speaking to the BBC outside the Philadelphia show, one concertgoer said there was a shared determination to spend the evening listening to music while also supporting freedom of speech.
After the concert, one fan said Sheeran had addressed both perspectives fairly and that most people would leave satisfied. Another described his statement as sincere, saying that authenticity was what audiences wanted to hear.
The 35-year-old pop star has faced intense criticism since support act Macklemore was removed over his pro-Palestinian views. At Saturday’s Philadelphia concert, Sheeran read a statement from an autocue admitting that he had made “mistakes” in handling the dispute
Although the most intense fighting has eased since a ceasefire began in October, Israel has continued to launch strikes in Gaza. The Hamas-run health ministry says at least 1,375 people have been killed since the agreement came into effect.
On September 8, 12 countries including the UK, France and Canada announced sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, following reports of some 1,400 attacks by Israeli settlers this year.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the measures would target ‘illegal settlements and settlement expansion’, adding that there had been ‘ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists’.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar responded by accusing Miliband of spreading an ‘outrageous lie’ and later announced counter-measures, including shutting the UK’s consulate in East Jerusalem.
Podcasters Vogue Williams and Joanne McNally criticised Sheeran’s Instagram apology shared last week, saying ‘he’s really he’s f**ked up badly as apologies go’.
‘This is why people need publicists’, McNally said on the latest episode of the duo’s My Therapist Ghosted Me podcast.
‘Do you know how many people would have been working on that statement?’ Vogue added, before comparing the apology to when her eight-year-old son says sorry.
‘I’m sorry you feel like this, but the the suggestion is I’ve done nothing wrong.
‘He didn’t even put that thing through ChatGPT. They’re selling out arenas in America. You’re telling me the promoter is controlling everything and you’re not. Get a grip, Edward.’
In a solemn speech at the start of Saturday’s concert, Sheeran read off the autocue as he said: ‘I have tried in my career not to be a political commentator of any kind because I want my music and shows to be about unity and not division, about humanity and not politics.
‘But this is a humanitarian issue and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore. What happened in Israel at Nova music festival on October 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain.
‘What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate.
‘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.’
Sheeran told the audience that he plans to ‘continue my current tour’ despite each of his openers dropping out in solidarity with Macklemore.
Macklemore made the comments at two performances at MetLife Stadium on September 4 and 5, as he introduced his 2024 protest song Hind’s Hall which condemns Israel’s military action in Gaza.
Macklemore was removed from Sheeran’s tour after US stadium owner Robert Kraft accused him of hate speech said he was ‘only sharing selective information and ignoring the actions of Hamas’.
Kraft banned him from performing at the Gillette Stadium near Boston, which is owned by his holding company.
Sheeran struggled to hold back tears as he returned to the stage on Saturday, without his backing band and support acts.
Sheeran said he had ‘found out who his friends are’, adding: ‘I cannot hide how I feel… any more.’
In his first stage appearance since the Loop tour was plunged into turmoil, the 35-year-old father of two said he ‘never wanted to be an activist musician’ but the fierce criticism meant he has had to ‘take and make difficult decisions’.
He said: ‘I really didn’t know whether this tour would be carrying on. In these situations, you really find out who your friends are and it’s been a weird week. I just feel like it happened very quickly.
‘In the back of my mind, I saw the ticket sales for this gig and I didn’t see cancellations, I saw people buying tickets for this gig.
Reposting Sheeran’s speech on X, Piers Morgan commented: ‘I agree with Ed Sheeran’s overview but I wish he hadn’t bowed to the mob and felt forced to say it publicly’
Many agreed with Morgan, with one supporter posting: ‘His PR people need to be fired. No reason for him to have to speak to that outside of a very small mob of loudmouths’
‘Everyone’s telling me to cancel and I’m feeling all of my friends and family and people I know abandon me.
‘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 am doing this for you. I love you. I love this.’
Sheeran said his heart had been broken ‘by the scale of devastation and loss of lives’ and became emotional as he told a cheering crowd: ‘I’m so grateful you are here with me tonight.’
He apologised and became visibly emotional again at the end of the show for bringing politics to his concert – something he had vowed not to do.
Sheeran said at the end of the night: ‘The one thing that I would like to apologise for is the first bit of the show where it wasn’t about music and I had to talk.
‘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.’
By the end of the show, Sheeran broke down into tears, telling fans: ‘I’m so grateful. The world is a scary place right now. America is a scary place right now. This gives hope. This gives hope.’
The crowd broke out in applause as Sheeran appeared deeply moved.
‘My shows are about this,’ he said. ‘They are about people coming together that don’t know each other, that have different beliefs. They’re about unity. They’re about love. They’re about family.’
As fans cheered, Sheeran vowed that the controversy would not stop him from performing.
‘You’re jumping around like maniacs with each other and having fun,’ he said. ‘And I will never stop doing this. I will never stop doing this. I love doing this so much.’
At one point during the concert Sheeran explained he had scrapped his usual separate ‘B stage’ setup, telling fans 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.
The crowd also gave a standing ovation after Sheeran brought out a group of musicians, led by the fiddler Alicia Enstrom, to back him on songs including his hit Galway Girl.
He explained how he reached out to the musicians after Irish folk band Beoga, who had played with him on the previous tour dates, dropped out of the tour.
‘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?” Sheeran said.
‘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.’
In 2014, Macklemore issued an apology after wearing a disguise on stage in Seattle that many condemned as an anti-Semitic Jewish caricature.
Photographs from the concert show the rapper wearing a black wig, beard and a fake hooked nose.
In his apology, he said he didn’t mean to offend anyone but realised the outfit could have looked like a ‘Jewish caricature’.
‘There is no worse feeling than being misunderstood, especially when people are hurt or offended… I respect all cultures and all people,’ the rapper said.
‘I would never intentionally put down anybody for the fabric that makes them who they are. I love human beings, love originality, and… happen to love a weird outfit from time to time.’
Macklemore added that he never thought he looked Jewish. ‘Some people there thought I looked like Ringo, some Abe Lincoln. If anything, I thought I looked like Humpty Hump with a bowl cut,’ he said.