Ed Sheeran apologised for ‘making mistakes’ as he addressed his recent controversy with Macklemore in Philadelphia.
The singer returned to the stage on Saturday for the first time since his tour was derailed by the US rapper being cancelled for speaking out against Israel’s actions in Palestine.
Macklemore was pulled from the tour after he gave a passionate speech to his fans about ending the ‘genocide in Gaza’ and saying ‘Free Palestine’.
Sheeran has been receiving a lot of backlash since the rapper was removed from the tour, with all of his support acts subsequently dropping out.
Ahead of the Philadelphia concert on Saturday, protesters peacefully gathered outside Lincoln Financial Field, waving Palestinian flags and chanting ‘Free, free Palestine’.
Sheeran appeared on stage by himself and opened the show with an apology for his ‘mistakes’ over the past week.
He said: ‘I’ve had to take and make difficult decisions, and I am making mistakes, and I’m so so sorry.’
The singer said that he did not want to be a ‘political commentator’ in the past, but ‘this is a humanitarian issue and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore’.
Sheeran continued: ‘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.
‘And the systemic injustice we are seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked.’
Since his supporting acts, including Irish performers Aaron Rowe and Beoga, all dropped out of the tour, Sheeran opened Saturday’s show alone.
However, he later brought out five musicians who he said had learned his songs in three days.
Sheeran also thanked them for joining him ‘in a week when no one wants to stand on stage with me’.
The Englishman added: ‘I really didn’t know whether I’d be even getting on stage again, whether I even wanted to be an artist at all.’
He still has shows scheduled throughout North and South America for the rest of his tour.
