Music3 min(s) read
Ed Sheeran is facing swift public backlash after embarking on his solo performance at Lincoln Financial Field Stadium in Philadelphia on Saturday.
The singer was left to perform without any opening acts on his ongoing Loop tour after his entire supporting lineup quit. Musicians including Finneas, Aaron Rowe, Lukas Graham, and his backing band withdrew in protest after rapper Macklemore was removed from the tour roster.
The rapper was dropped following comments he made in support of Palestine during a show in New Jersey.
Addressing the stadium crowd at the start of the gig, Sheeran took responsibility for the chaotic sequence of events. He said, "I've had to take, and make, difficult decisions, and I am making mistakes and I'm so, so sorry for them."
The artist tearfully described feeling as though his close connections were stepping away. He told the audience, "Everyone is telling me to cancel, and I'm feeling all of my friends and family and people I know abandon me, and I look at the end of the week, and I see 50,000 people who haven't abandoned."
However, the raw emotion displayed during the set has been called into question online after concertgoers shared alternative camera angles showing equipment on stage.
Shortly after videos of the speech circulated online, viewers on X alleged that the singer was relying on pre-written text rather than delivering an unscripted speech.
One person took to X to correct a headline from a publisher that Sheeran was “addressing the backlash” and instead claimed that the singer was actually just “reading a teleprompter”.
Another posted a clip of Sheeran’s on-stage apology with the caption, “Here's the angle of Ed Sheeran reading the whole thing from his teleprompter.”
A third account penned, “Ed Sheeran starts to cry while reading a teleprompter message ‘from the heart’ at tonight’s concert.”
Critics argued that Sheeran's apparent use of the device made the moment feel manufactured rather than personal. Many users stated that relying on a scripted display - allegedly - undermined the emotional delivery of his apology.
During his opening speech, Sheeran addressed the political tensions that sparked the tour adjustments. He said, "I don't want to disappoint fans, and I've never wanted to be an activist musician, but this has put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet."
He added, "This is a humanitarian issue, and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore. 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 and unjustifiable and disproportionate. My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians' lives, children's lives."
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