Sheeran calls Gaza 'catastrophic' as tour roiled by Macklemore's removal

Ed Sheeran stood before a nearly full stadium in Philadelphia on Saturday night and said something he had insisted all week he didn't want to say. The situation in Gaza, he told the crowd at Lincoln Financial Field, was catastrophic and unjustifiable. He said the October 2023 attacks on Israel were horrific. He also said he had never wanted to be an activist musician, that his songs were about love and hope and unity, not politics. But the week's events had forced him into the middle of what he called one of the most complex political arguments on the planet.

The controversy began when Macklemore, Sheeran's original opener for the U.S. leg of his Loop Tour, shouted "Free Palestine" during a September 5 show in New Jersey. Within days, Macklemore was dropped from the tour. Sheeran said he wasn't responsible for the decision, which came at the urging of Robert Kraft, the New England Patriots owner whose company controls a stadium where Sheeran was scheduled to perform on Friday. The move set off a chain reaction. Lukas Graham and Aaron Rowe, who were brought in to replace Macklemore, withdrew in solidarity. Finneas, Billie Eilish's brother and a scheduled collaborator for South American dates later in the year, dropped out as well. Beoga, an Irish folk band that had been joining Sheeran for several songs at each stop, also stepped back.

Outside the Philadelphia stadium before Saturday's show, a small group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered. Hillary Steinberg, 34, was among them. She had bought tickets a year earlier but decided to get a refund and join the protest instead. She said she had been a devoted Sheeran fan until that week. "I think all art is political, and all music is political," she said, "and so this choice—even though he was saying that he wasn't complicit—is a political choice." Inside the stadium, Diane Savitz, 53, from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, held a different view. She had purchased her tickets months before and attended the show. She said Sheeran had done nothing wrong and that a concert was not the appropriate place for political statements. "Music should bring people together," she said.

Macklemore responded to his removal by announcing he would donate $1 million to Palestinian relief efforts and called on Kraft to match the contribution. A spokesperson for Kraft said the billionaire and Sheeran had each agreed to donate $2 million, though neither specified where the money would go. Sheeran's representatives did not respond to requests for comment on the donation.

Sheeran's Loop Tour had been the highest-grossing concert tour in the world, averaging more than $7 million per city according to Pollstar's May report. Through the end of 2025, Sheeran ranked as the third-highest-earning concert act since 2021. He told the Philadelphia crowd that everyone was welcome at his shows and that people with opposing views could still sing along to his music. He also expressed concern about venues preapproving performances. "This happens in so many places that I perform around the world, but it should never happen in the free world," he said.

Sheeran had spent the week insisting that his fans came to his concerts for the music, not to hear about geopolitical conflicts. He said he had spoken with venues at length trying to build bridges before Macklemore was removed. He emphasized that he would never willingly disappoint his fans or abandon the touring crew and others whose livelihoods depended on the shows continuing. Yet experts note that an artist of Sheeran's stature typically has final authority over what happens at his concerts, even though promoters and venues wield considerable power. The question of who actually made the decision to drop Macklemore—and whether Sheeran could have prevented it—remained contested as the tour moved forward.