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Ed Sheeran says friends and family 'abandoned' him amid tour fallout

musicSep 21, 202631320

At Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Saturday night Ed Sheeran, visibly emotional, told the crowd he felt friends and family were abandoning him amid the fallout from removing Macklemore from his Loop Tour. Sheeran said the promoter made the decision to drop Macklemore after venues including Gillette Stadium and MetLife Stadium raised objections following Macklemore’s onstage call for a “free Palestine.” Several scheduled openers including Finneas, Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe and Sheeran’s longtime backing band Beoga walked in solidarity; Sheeran replaced Beoga with hastily assembled musicians and performed with no opening act. Sheeran opened the show by calling the October 7 Nova festival attack “horrific” and describing the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate,” then apologized for saying he was not trying to be a political commentator. He directly apologized for making that political preamble mid-show, saying he understood families did not buy tickets to hear that, and later broke into tears while telling the audience he saw “50,000 people who haven’t abandoned me.” Outside the venue a pro-Palestine protest gathered, and Sheeran did not name his cousin Jethro Sheeran, who records as Alonestar and publicly called him a “coward” and said he was “ashamed” of him.

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