Ed Sheeran breaks down onstage, says he felt ‘abandoned’ amid Palestine row

Ed Sheeran broke down during a Philadelphia concert, feeling abandoned by friends and family amid calls to cancel his tour after Macklemore's removal.

Despite pressure to cancel, Sheeran continued his tour upon seeing strong ticket sales, though he faced turmoil and assembled a new backing band quickly.

Sheeran addressed the Israel-Palestine conflict, expressing regret over his decisions and emphasising the severity of the humanitarian issues involved.

PHILADELPHIA, Sept 21 — Ed Sheeran broke down during his concert here after describing the fallout from the controversy surrounding rapper Macklemore’s removal from his tour as the hardest week of his life.

The Sun reported that Sheeran told the 50,000-strong crowd he had felt abandoned by friends, family and people he had known for years amid calls for him to cancel his Loop Tour.

Sheeran said he had been urged by numerous people to call off the tour, but chose to continue after seeing that ticket sales for the Philadelphia show had held up.

“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,” he said.

“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,” Sheeran added.

He told fans that the 50,000 people who attended had shown him they had not abandoned him, saying: “People will say what they want, but I am doing this for you. I love you. I love this.”

The singer also acknowledged the wider dispute over Macklemore, who was removed from the tour after making pro-Palestinian comments during performances, a move that was followed by the withdrawal of Sheeran’s other support acts and backing band in solidarity.

Sheeran said the turmoil had made him question whether he wanted to continue his career in music, while he assembled a new backing band at short notice, giving its members only three days to learn his catalogue.

He also removed the smaller B-stage used during previous shows to bring him closer to the audience, saying he had been worried that people might throw objects at him and that he had concerns about his safety.

Addressing the Israel-Palestine conflict during the concert, Sheeran said he had never wanted to be an activist musician but could no longer remain silent about what he described as a humanitarian issue.

“I’ve had to take, and make, difficult decisions, and I am making mistakes and I’m so, so sorry for them,” he said, before describing the October 7 attack in Israel as horrific and saying the situation in Gaza was “catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate”.

He also spoke of the civilian deaths in Gaza and children killed in the conflict, while saying systemic injustice in the West Bank could not be ignored.

The controversy intensified after Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft barred Macklemore from the venue following the rapper’s “Free Palestine” comments, with Sheeran later saying the decision to remove Macklemore from the tour was made by the promoter rather than him.

Support acts Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe and Finneas, along with Sheeran’s backing band Beoga, subsequently withdrew from the tour in solidarity with Macklemore.

Earlier in the week, Sheeran’s cousin Jethro had also criticised him online, calling him a “coward” and a “bad human”, according to The Sun .

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在麦克莫尔被除名后，艾德·希兰在费城演唱会上情绪崩溃，感到被朋友和家人抛弃，并有人呼吁取消他的巡演。

尽管面临取消巡演的压力，希兰还是在看到票房火爆后继续了他的巡演，尽管他遭遇了种种困难，并迅速组建了一支新的伴奏乐队。

希兰谈到了以色列-巴勒斯坦冲突，对他的决定表示遗憾，并强调了其中涉及的人道主义问题的严重性。

费城，9 月 21 日——艾德·希兰在费城演唱会上情绪崩溃，他将说唱歌手麦克莫尔被取消巡演资格引发的争议的后果描述为他一生中最艰难的一周。

《太阳报》报道称，希兰告诉现场 5 万名观众，在要求他取消 Loop 巡回演唱会的呼声中，他感到被朋友、家人和认识多年的人抛弃了。

希兰表示，许多人都劝他取消巡演，但他看到费城演唱会的门票销售情况良好后，决定继续进行巡演。

“在这种情况下，你才能真正看清谁是你的朋友。这真是奇怪的一周。一切发生得太快了。与此同时，很多人劝我取消巡演，还有很多我认识很多年的人，他们似乎都在疏远我，”他说。

“我心里一直想着这场演唱会的售票情况，没看到有人取消，只看到有人买票。现在每个人都劝我取消，我感觉我的朋友、家人和认识的人都抛弃了我，”希兰补充道。

他告诉歌迷，到场的五万名歌迷向他表明他们没有抛弃他，他说：“人们会说他们想说的话，但我这样做是为了你们。我爱你们。我热爱这一切。”

这位歌手还承认了围绕 Macklemore 的更广泛的争议，Macklemore 在演出期间发表了支持巴勒斯坦的言论后被取消了巡演资格，随后 Sheeran 的其他暖场嘉宾和伴奏乐队也退出了巡演以示声援。

希兰表示，这场动荡让他开始质疑自己是否想继续从事音乐事业，同时他在短时间内组建了一支新的伴奏乐队，只给了乐队成员三天时间来学习他的所有曲目。

他还拆除了之前演出时用来拉近与观众距离的小型 B 舞台，称他担心有人会向他扔东西，并且担心自己的安全。

在演唱会上谈到以色列-巴勒斯坦冲突时，希兰表示，他从未想过要成为一名激进的音乐家，但他再也不能对这个他称之为人道主义问题的问题保持沉默了。

“我不得不做出艰难的决定，而且我犯了一些错误，对此我深感抱歉，”他说道，随后将 10 月 7 日发生在以色列的袭击描述为可怕的，并表示加沙局势是“灾难性的、不公正的、不成比例的”。

他还谈到了加沙平民的死亡和冲突中丧生的儿童，同时表示不能忽视西岸的系统性不公正现象。

在说唱歌手麦克莫尔发表“解放巴勒斯坦”言论后，吉列体育场的老板罗伯特·克拉夫特禁止他进入体育场，争议进一步升级。希兰后来表示，将麦克莫尔从巡演中除名的决定是由主办方而不是他做出的。

暖场嘉宾 Lukas Graham、Aaron Rowe 和 Finneas，以及 Sheeran 的伴奏乐队 Beoga，随后都退出了巡演，以声援 Macklemore。

据《太阳报》报道，本周早些时候，希兰的表弟杰斯罗也在网上批评了他，称他为“懦夫”和“坏人”。

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