Ed Sheeran has been forced to make a huge change to his LOOP tour amid fears that the audience would ‘throw things’ at him following the Palestine row
Ed Sheeran has switched up his tour amid being “afraid” of his audience. The singer, 35, recently spoke for the first time about the ongoing Palestine row, which saw his support act, Macklemore, taken off the line-up over his comments.
Ed’s own band and his further four support acts later pulled out of the tour in solidarity with Macklemore. As the Thinking Out Loud musician took to the stage at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, masked protesters gathered outside, waving the Palestinian flag.
As the concert neared its end, Ed told the audience he had to change his plans because he was unsure how the crowd would react to him. Speaking on stage, Ed said: “The show itself, at this point in the show, to be honest like I usually go out to B stage and I’m gonna be totally honest with you I didn’t know what the audience would be like tonight.
“I didn’t know if I was going to have things thrown at me. I didn’t know if people would be angry at me.” As the audience cheered, Ed continued: “I apologise that today is not the usual Loop show where I stand on the B stage, but I was afraid of standing in the middle.
“I will admit that.” He later burst into tears as he acknowledged the pressure his tour is facing. He told the crowd that he didn’t want to be a “political commentator” and that his music is simply about “unity, not division, about humanity, not politics.”
While saying that he “cannot hide” how he really feels “anymore”, he said: “What happened in Israel and at the Nova music festival on October 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain.
“What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic, unjustifiable, and disproportionate. My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians’ lives, children’s lives And the systemic injustice we are seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked.
“And the systemic injustice we are seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked.” The scandal surrounding Ed first emerged when Macklemore was prohibited by owner Robert Kraft from performing at Gillette Stadium.
He said he would not “provide a platform for hate speech” after the musician and DJ spoke openly about Palestine while on stage. Following the scandal, Ed’s band and support acts, Finneas, Aaron Rowe, and Lukas Graham, all announced they had decided to withdraw from the tour.
Thousands of people attempted to sell their tickets, as Ed faced pressure about the future of the tour. Following the fallout, Ed explained that he had questioned whether he wanted to continue being an artist.
He later said: “In these situations, you really find out who your friends are. It’s been a weird week. It happened very quickly. At the same time, I had so many people telling me to cancel this tour, and so many people I’ve known for years and years and years, they’re kind of backing away.
“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. 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.”
Last Monday, Macklemore said on Instagram that Ed and his team had “made the decision to remove” him from the LOOP tour. Ed later hit back, claiming the decision was made by the tour promoters.
He said: “I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care. Nor does it mean I don’t support causes in my own personal way.”
Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
