Ed Sheeran takes the stage alone amid tour chaos

What a fortnight it has been for Ed Sheeran who has found himself in the centre of one of the biggest controversies in the music industry this year, raising the question of free speech and whether politics belong on a concert stage.

Now Sheeran has said, out loud and into a microphone, what he thinks.

Opening his Loop Tour show at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on September 19, Sheeran took the stage alone. There was no support act, and no warm-up. He told the crowd the controversy surrounding his tour was about something far bigger than his music.

“I’ve had to take, and make, difficult decisions, and I am making mistakes, and I’m so, so sorry,” he said.

He told fans he had never wanted to be an activist musician, but the situation had placed him at the centre of “an important and passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet”.

Then he went further.

“What happened in Israel and at the Nova music festival on October 7th was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain,” he said.

Turning to the war in Gaza, Sheeran called the situation “catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate”, saying his heart had been broken by the loss of civilian lives, including children’s lives. While Sheeran mentioned Nova, his impassioned speech has still angered many who said his comments failed to acknowledge the full impact of the conflict on Israelis.

The controversy began on September 4 when Macklemore, the opening act on Sheeran’s US Loop Tour, took to the stage at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Wearing a keffiyeh, the rapper shouted “Free Palestine” to the 80,000-strong crowd, then performed his 2024 protest song Hind’s Hall as images from the conflict in Gaza played on screens behind him. He told the audience one of the main reasons he joined the tour was so he could stand in stadiums and say “Free Palestine”.

Some concertgoers cheered, but many others walked out, and within hours, the backlash was in full swing.

Pink, born Alecia Moore, was among the first high-profile voices to weigh in. She reshared an Instagram story from Jewish advocacy group StopAntisemitism that accused Macklemore of pushing anti-Israel propaganda and called for apologies and refunds. She did not add her own words, and many followers attributed the entire message to her. What followed was a wave of personal attacks, calls to boycott her music, and fans declaring they were done with her.For a few days, the singer responded with sarcastic memes, which for those who know Pink, is very on brand. But by Erev Rosh Hashanah, she was ready to comment personally.

“I’ve been quiet in my own words for a week, which you know isn’t like me. So here they are,” she wrote.

Pink acknowledged the repost used language she would not have chosen. “A repost isn’t a statement, and a meme isn’t a spine,” she wrote. “But I’d rather be disagreed with for what I actually said than hated for what anybody else wrote.”

Then came the heart of it.

“I was born a Jew. I didn’t pick it, and I’ve never hidden it,” she wrote. “And this week a whole lot of people decided what I believe without asking me, without checking a single thing I’ve ever said or done, because a repost and the word ‘Jew’ were apparently enough to fill in the rest.”

Pink stressed she does not speak for Israel or any government. She reiterated the position she has held since October 2023: that Hamas is a terrorist organisation, that Palestinians deserve a future that honours their humanity, and that protecting innocent life comes first.

But what drove her to speak up was not the phrase “Free Palestine”. It was what happened at the concert, and what Macklemore has said in the past and since.

Pink recalled how, at the 2014 Grammys, she cheered when Macklemore performed Same Love as couples were married onstage. Four months later, Macklemore appeared in a costume that many Jewish people interpreted as an antisemitic caricature, complete with a prosthetic hooked nose and black beard. He apologised. Pink said she let it go.

But the MetLife performance, she said, brought those memories flooding back.

“You don’t get to decide that for us,” she wrote.

Pink was emphatic she was not calling for anyone to be silenced or fired.”What I need is to be able to say, as a Jewish mom, ‘that scared me, and it scared people I love,’ without being told our fear is just propaganda.”

She distilled it down to one line: “You don’t have to agree with one thing Israel’s government does to not want the Jewish family two rows down from you to be scared or targeted at a concert. That’s the only thing I’m asking anybody for.”

Pink signed off with a nod to the Jewish new year. “Now I’m going to go make dinner for my kids, light the candles, dip some apples in honey, pour a glass of wine and be full of gratitude,” she wrote. “That’s my tradition. It also happens to be a Jewish one. Shana tova.”Behind the scenes, things moved fast. Macklemore alleged on Instagram that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who owns Gillette Stadium, had told Sheeran he would not be allowed to perform there and had rallied other stadium owners to issue a collective ultimatum. They should drop Macklemore or lose the venues.

Kraft confirmed his role, saying the decision was based on Macklemore’s recent on-stage actions and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery.

Messina Touring Group, which promotes the US leg of the tour, told Rolling Stone that venues had notified them they would not allow concerts to proceed with Macklemore on the lineup, which would have resulted in the cancellation of the tour.

On September 15, Sheeran broke his silence with an Instagram statement, placing responsibility for Macklemore’s removal with promoters and venue owners.

“Macklemore coming off tour was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine,” he wrote. Sheeran said he had spent the week trying to build bridges, including speaking directly with Kraft, but the decision was final. He described himself as “appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine” and said his shows are meant to be places of unity, joy and escapism.

“I respect Macklemore’s strength of purpose to stand up and shout for what he believes,” he wrote. “However, there is room for multiple approaches to the same end: peace.”

But the bridge-building was not enough to hold the tour together. Four acts announced their departure in protest: Irish performers Aaron Rowe and Beoga (Sheeran’s longtime touring band), Danish group Lukas Graham and US musician Finneas, the brother of Billie Eilish.

The departures have left Sheeran’s US tour short of both support acts and key members of his band.

Sheeran is no stranger to the Australian Jewish community. He shared a deep friendship with the late Mushroom Group founder Michael Gudinski, performing at Gudinski’s state memorial in 2021 and dedicating his album = (Equals) to the Australian music mogul. He wrote the song Visiting Hours about his grief at Gudinski’s death.

Macklemore has stood by his remarks, reposting concert footage and telling audiences at a subsequent show that “criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you”, addressing Jewish concertgoers directly.

Sheeran meanwhile is standing by his claim that everyone is welcome at his concerts, saying they can have opposing points of view while still singing his songs, which are about “love, hope and unity.”

With Times of Israel