Ed Sheeran opened his show Saturday night in Philadelphia with an apology to fans for his “mistakes,” after the singer-songwriter’s tour became mired in controversy this week over free speech and the conflict in Gaza.
Sheeran, alone on the stage after opener Macklemore was dropped from the tour’s US dates over his pro-Palestinian remarks, said his “heart has been broken” by the Israel-Hamas war and he’s had to make “difficult decisions.”
“I don’t want to disappoint fans, and I’ve 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,” Sheeran said at Lincoln Financial Field.
Sheeran’s other opening acts and backing band, the Irish folk group Beoga, resigned in solidarity over the past week after Macklemore was dropped. Sheeran’s comments Saturday were his first since an Instagram post on Tuesday in which he defended his longstanding position to keep politics out of his shows, prompting backlash from some fans.
“I’ve had to take and make difficult decisions and I am making mistakes, and I’m so, so sorry,” Sheeran said Saturday.
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Moments after he took the stage, Sheeran said the Hamas-led attack on Israel, including at the Nova Music festival, on October 7, 2023 was “horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain.”
Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage.
Referring to Israel’s war in Gaza launched after the attack, Sheeran said the ongoing violence in the region is “catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate.”
“My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilian’s lives, children’s lives,” he said. He also said the “systemic injustice” in the West Bank could not be overlooked.
But Sheeran stressed “everyone is welcome” at his shows and can “stand beside people who have opposing views” while still agreeing on “singing these songs,” before the concert began.
“My concerts have always been a safe space for everyone, and that matters hugely to me,” he said.
Later in the show, Sheeran said he chose not to perform on a secondary stage in the middle of the crowd because he “didn’t know if he’d have things thrown at (him).”
Concertgoers, fans divided on controversy
Thousands of fans streamed into the venue shortly before the concert, many of whom were wearing pink and included families with young children, telling CNN they were excited to attend the show with hopes of no disruptions.
Many concertgoers told CNN before the show they empathize with Macklemore’s previous statements onstage but hoped the focus on Saturday would be on the music.
Lucinda Balubinsai said she was excited to see “my favorite singer, my ginger Ed Sheeran.”
Balubinsai told CNN she’s disappointed Macklemore isn’t performing but added Sheeran was “in a bind” and can carry the concert himself.
A small crowd of demonstrators — some waving Palestinian flags — gathered just a few blocks from the venue until shortly before the concert started.
A coalition of pro-Palestinian organizations previously said they would demonstrate near the concert venue Saturday afternoon to “return the conversation to Palestine, and return Philadelphia to action.”
Around 50 people were chanting, “Free Palestine” and calling for Sheeran to leave the city as drums and trumpets played along. Demonstrators held signs and waved Palestinian flags as they protested peacefully.
The controversy also had some ticketholders reconsidering whether to attend the English superstar’s concert, while others remain committed to seeing Sheeran perform.
Karen DeAngelis, who lives in Virginia, said she and her 10-year-old daughter were still planning to spend the weekend in Philadelphia, but after Sheeran didn’t defend Macklemore, she was no longer sure if they would attend the concert.
Macklemore, best known for 2012’s “Thrift Shop,” has publicly advocated for Palestinian rights since Israel began its yearslong bombing campaign in Gaza after the October 7 attacks.
Opening for Sheeran earlier this month at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, the rapper wore a black-and-white keffiyeh tied around his neck.
“A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place, was so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: Free Palestine,” he said, according to video of the event. He added that “to all of my Jewish brothers and sisters, criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you.”
On Monday, days after the shows in New Jersey, Macklemore said on Instagram he’d been dropped from Sheeran’s remaining US tour dates.
Macklemore has pointed the blame squarely at Robert Kraft, who owns Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, where Sheeran and Macklemore were scheduled to perform later this month. Kraft, Macklemore said, had “rallied some of the other stadium owners” and given Sheeran an ultimatum: “if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.”
Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots, said this week he would bar Macklemore from performing at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts this month.
“Based on Macklemore’s recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran’s shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community, we determined that his participation in the September 25th and 26th concerts at Gillette Stadium would cross that line,” Kraft said in a statement.
Sheeran wrote that he “spoke with the venues at length all week to try to build a bridge” before Macklemore was dropped.
DeAngelis said she read Sheeran’s initial statement in response to Macklemore being dropped from the tour, in which he explained it had been the promoter’s decision, not his own.
The mother said she wasn’t pleased with the singer’s response.
“It was very disappointing, to be quite honest, because we had followed along with what was said, and we thought, this is a message of peace. This is a message of hope. This is a message of a call to action,” DeAngelis said, adding, “Macklemore has been someone who’s spoken out for a bit now, so it certainly couldn’t have been a surprise, you know.”
“I thought, ‘you can’t stand up for free speech. You don’t want to stand up against something that’s so terrible,’” she said.
DeAngelis said she was also concerned by “the second side” to the controversy.
“Now I’m hearing about security concerns and about increased police force and protesting, and I think that’s fine for me, but I have a 10-year-old, so I don’t know,” she said.
The Philadelphia Police Department said it would monitor the event and make “any necessary adjustments based on public safety needs.”
“As with all large events at the stadium complex, the Philadelphia Police Department is working closely with venue and event organizers to help ensure the safety of concertgoers, employees, and neighborhood residents,” the department said in a statement Saturday.’
Heather Park said she was concerned the concert would be canceled due to a lack of support for the event.
Park, who has been waiting to see Sheeran in concert since the last time he came to Philadelphia, said the controversy that erupted surrounding Macklemore’s statement “is just ridiculous.”
“I’m still going,” Park told CNN. “Even if Macklemore was still opening up, I would still go. Like, he’s allowed to have his opinion. I’m allowed to have mine.”
The price tracking site TicketData noted while it is normal for many concert resale ticket prices to drop closer to the show date, resale prices for Saturday’s Sheeran show have fallen by a significant amount.
Notably, TicketData said, the promoter started allowing refunds for the show when ticketholders requested them through Ticketmaster’s chat support. The move effectively puts “a floor under the resale market,” Keith Pagello, founder of TicketData, told CNN, adding that an opening act dropping off is not typically a circumstance where a promoter would offer refunds, “so they are going above and beyond here.”
For part of Saturday’s show, Sheeran welcomed a new group of musicians to the stage, who he said had agreed to join the tour despite the backlash and learned the songs in just three days.
“They said yes to being on stage with the knowledge that the world thought I was certain type of person. They said yes with the knowledge that the world may hate them too for standing on stage with me, and I am so grateful.”
Debate ahead of curtain time
Among the few dozen protesters who were gathering just blocks from the venue before the concert was Karen Wisniewski, who showed up Saturday to stand for freedom of speech after the response to Macklemore’s pro-Palestinian comments onstage, she told CNN.
“I think he caved… So I’m disappointed. I’m not a fan of his, but I think he should have taken the stand,” Wisniewski said of Sheeran.
Another protester, Mac Croom, said he’s standing against what he called “silencing pro-Palestinian solidarity.”
Standing in solidarity with Palestinians “does not begin, nor does it end with internet drama,” Croom told CNN.
“… We’re out here to show that our impact does not stop at celebrities or concerts; That it actually has real impact, and every Philadelphian needs to stand alongside them,” he said.
Some concertgoers told CNN Sheeran was put in an impossible position and handled the situation in the best way he could.
“I’m not putting my support behind one side or another, I’m more for, let’s get peace with everybody,” one concertgoer said.
In an Instagram post Tuesday, Sheeran said, “There is a reason I do not use my professional platform for politics — my audience includes young people, often children, of all backgrounds. Those who come to my shows do not expect a political forum. I respect Macklemore’s strength of purpose to stand up and shout for what he believes. However, there is room for multiple approaches to the same end: peace.”
Irish singer-songwriter Aaron Rowe, who along with Finneas, Beoga and the Danish band Lukas Graham all withdrew from their opening slots and as Sheeran’s support band on the tour, called for the focus to be put on the stadium owner rather than Sheeran.
“All I keep hearing is Ed Sheeran this, Ed Sheeran that. When you really should be focusing on the likes of Robert Kraft,” Rowe said in a video posted on TikTok. “You should be using this opportunity to plaster Robert Kraft’s face everywhere. Someone who tried to shut down free speech. Someone who tried to silence the voices of people who are shouting about genocide.”
Palestine Legal litigation director Radhika Sainath said Sheeran should “have called Kraft’s bluff” in a statement. The organization says it aims to protect “the civil and constitutional rights of people in the U.S. who speak out for Palestinian freedom.”
“If Sheeran had fought back instead of giving in to censorship and bullying, not only would he have retained the moral high ground with his millions of fans – and been on the right side of history – he would likely have a strong case for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages for whatever losses he incurred over Kraft’s threatened cancellation,” Sainath said.
But prior to his removal from the tour, Macklemore’s comments at the concert also prompted criticism from the singer Pink and a petition against his appearances.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia supports the decision to remove Macklemore from the tour, said Jason Holtzman, chief of the organization’s Jewish Community Relations Council.
That stance, Holtzman said, “is not about silencing criticism of Israel, advocacy for Palestinians, or political views.”
“It is about recognizing when a performance marketed to a broad and diverse audience becomes a platform for political rhetoric and imagery that leaves members of that audience feeling singled out or unwelcome,” he continued.
The organization said in an earlier statement it “believes in strong public debate and civil discourse, including on Israel and the Palestinians, and artists have every right to take part in it. Our concern is with the problematic history of the messenger and the specific message, as well as the venue he chose to deliver it in.”
The group referenced Macklemore’s 2014 performance – which he has publicly apologized for – when he wore what he called “a random costume” of a hooked false nose, wig and fake beard, but which observers widely read as an antisemitic caricature.
“Our position remains unambiguous: we are unwavering in our commitment to Israel as a free, prosperous, Jewish and democratic state, and we believe that Palestinians deserve to live in peace and prosperity as well. At a moment of extraordinary pain and polarization, we should be working to create spaces that recognize the humanity and dignity of Palestinians and Israelis alike,” the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia said.
“A concert attended by tens of thousands of people from different backgrounds should be an opportunity to bring people together, not deepen the divisions between them.”
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