{"id":899455,"date":"2026-09-20T23:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T23:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/899455\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T23:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T23:56:13","slug":"ed-sheeran-first-concert-since-controversy-comments-emotional-turn-to-stage-friends-and-family-have-abandoned-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/899455\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed Sheeran first concert since controversy comments: Emotional turn to stage, friends and family have abandoned him"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed Sheeran made an emotional return to the stage<\/a> on Saturday night, (Sunday AEST) and admitted he\u2019s lost friends and family over the controversy surrounding his tour<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old singer broke down in tears and sat cross-legged on stage at one point, as he addressed Macklemore getting kicked off the Loop Tour<\/a> over his \u201cFree Palestine\u201d comments and the rest of his opening acts quitting in a show of solidarity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ed Sheeran broke down in tears as he addressed the friends and family who had \u2018abandoned\u2019 him throughout the controversy. \u00a0Instagram\/teddysphotos<\/p>\n

\u201cIn these situations you really find out who your friends are. It\u2019s been a weird week,\u201d he told the crowd in a video captured by a fan at the Lincoln Financial Field show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happened very quickly. At the same time, I had so many people telling me to cancel this tour and so many people I\u2019ve known for years and years and years they\u2019re kind of backing away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheeran, who was clearly emotional, admitted that people had urged him to just cancel the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the back of my mind, I saw the ticket sales for this gig and I didn\u2019t see cancellations, I saw people buying tickets for this gig,\u201d he continued as the crowd started to cheer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s telling me to cancel and I\u2019m feeling all of my friends and family and people I know<\/a> abandon me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But ultimately, Sheeran said he was there for his fans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at the end of the week and I see 50,000 people who haven\u2019t abandoned me,\u201d he continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will say what they want, but I am doing this for you. I love you. I love this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Thinking Out Loud hitmaker went on<\/a> to call the concert the best show of his life, while the past week had been one of the worst weeks he\u2019d ever experienced.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at the end of the week and I see 50,000 people who haven\u2019t abandoned me,\u201d Sheeran told the crowd. Pictured on stage in December 2025. \u00a0Photo by Scott Eisen\/Getty Images for iHeartRadio<\/p>\n

Sheeran admitted he was forced to make a change to the stage layout, over fears for his safety. <\/p>\n

Instead of going with the B stage \u2013 which was his original plan \u2013 he opted against it. <\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know what this audience would be like tonight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know if I would have things thrown at me. I didn\u2019t know if people would be angry at me.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo Philly, I apologise that today is not the usual Loop show. I took the B stage out because I was afraid of what might happen if I stood in the middle. And I\u2019ll admit that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Throughout the night the Shape of You singer also apologised to the fans in the audience for the ongoing drama surrounding the tour. <\/p>\n

\"Ed<\/p>\n

Sheeran took to the stage for the first time since Macklemore was dropped from his tour for making pro-Palestine remarks on-stage.\u00a0Larry Busacca\/Getty Images for MTV<\/p>\n

The controversy surrounding Sheeran\u2019s tour started after Macklemore was removed from the support acts, after he made \u2018Free Palestine\u2019 comments on stage and performed his 2024 pro-Palestinian protest song Hind\u2019s Hall. <\/p>\n

Within days it was announced that Macklemore would no longer be opening for Sheeran on the remaining dates of the tour, with reports that several stadiums had said they would not allow the concerts to proceed with Macklemore on the line-up.<\/p>\n

Macklemore has since claimed that New England Patriot\u2019s owner, Robert Kraft, was behind the decision.<\/p>\n

Kraft owns Gillette Stadium where the rapper was scheduled to open for Sheeran on September 25 and 26.<\/p>\n

\"PARIS,<\/p>\n

Macklemore has stuck by his on-stage comments, despite them costing him the tour.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Macklemore alleged that Kraft rallied other stadium owners to threaten to cancel tour dates if he wasn\u2019t dropped from the line-up.<\/p>\n

The rest of Sheeran\u2019s support acts followed suit, dropping out of the tour in a show of solidarity with Macklemore, leaving Sheeran with no opening acts. <\/p>\n

Sheeran broke his silence with a statement shared on his social media<\/a> and claimed the decision to remove Macklemore from the tour was made by the tour promoter and venues, with him having no say in the decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ed Sheeran made an emotional return to the stage on Saturday night, (Sunday AEST) and admitted he\u2019s lost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-899455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}