It’s about 9:30 p.m. at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, roughly an hour after Ed Sheeran delivered a surprisingly lengthy four-minute speech on the controversy that has engulfed his tour since Macklemore was dropped as an opening act following his pro-Palestinian remarks. But if the decision — and, by then, Sheeran’s response to it — has ignited outrage online, there was little of it to be found inside the stadium.
At the top of the show, Sheeran doubled down on the position he took in an online post earlier in the week. “I’ve had to take and make difficult decisions, and I am making mistakes, and I’m so, so sorry,” he said. He went on to say he was “appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine,” describing the suffering caused by the war as a “human tragedy,” while explaining that he has generally sought to keep his concerts focused on “unity, joy, escapism, love” rather than his own political views. At one point later in the show, he wept while making his comments.
“It brought a tear to my eye — I think it was very heartfelt,” says Kim Shafer, a middle-aged UX designer who drove four hours from Paris, Pennsylvania with her two friends to attend Sheeran’s concert. “And I think he made his position, where he stands, very clear.”
As we’re speaking, however, footage of Sheeran’s speech is spreading rapidly online. As expected, those online are taking aim at everything from his reliance on a teleprompter to his continued use of “neutral language.”
His emotional speech later in the show drew even more backlash online. “I really didn’t know if this tour would be carrying on,” he told the crowd, this time without a teleprompter, through tears. “I really didn’t know whether I’d even be getting on stage again, whether I even wanted to be an artist at all. In these situations, you really find out who your friends are.”
Many on social media used sarcasm to lambaste Sheeran for making the conversation about himself — “Everyone fails to consider the important thing about the genocide: Ed Sheeran’s feelings,” one X user wrote — but others noted the stark difference between Sheeran’s remarks to Macklemore’s statement in which the rapper emphasized his privilege: “I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim,” the rapper wrote. “We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families. The victims are the Palestinian people.”
Sheeran’s fans inside the stadium have a different perspective. “It was very well-spoken,” Shafer says, sipping a Coors beer while “Galway Girl” carries out onto the concourse. “I really appreciated it, and I think a lot of the fans really appreciated it.”
Earlier that day, pro-Palestinian protesters had gathered at a nearby corner ahead of the singer’s 8 p.m. performance. The demonstration, which drew around 100 participants, included organizers from Writers Against the War on Gaza, the Boycott Cooknsolo Coalition and Shut Down Day & Zimmermann. But if the goal was to disrupt concertgoers or create enough commotion to trigger a visible security response, the protest fell short. Only a handful of passing cars honked in support along the quiet road, and the speakers — many with their faces covered by masks and patterned keffiyehs — hardly needed the megaphones they used to reach the modest crowd. “We heard about it, but it made no difference,” a Lincoln Financial Field security guard said of the planned protest.
The protesters were successful, however, in attracting the press — few of which would likely cover a local demonstration in South Philadelphia under ordinary circumstances. Dozens of outlets, ranging from CNN and ITV News to PMC’s very own Variety and Hollywood Reporter, were camped outside the NRG train station. Many remarked on the small turnout. “Is it supposed to get bigger, or do you think we’re good to go?” one broadcaster, who had trained in from Washington D.C, asked me.
Once inside the venue, a security guard effectively rolled his eyes at what he deemed an “attempted cancellation” of the chart-topping artist. He stressed that it wasn’t Sheeran who dropped Macklemore from the tour, but the promoters. “Shame on them!” he said of the protesters, whom he said were placing unfair blame on the singer. “It’s entertainment, not politics.”
Indeed, most fans in the stadium seem eager to move past it. Asked if she had any thoughts on Sheeran’s speech, one woman seated along the concession, says “Nope!,” pursing her lips for emphasis.
“I’m just here for the music,” her friend says, smiling.
Younger fans, meanwhile, seem insecure about saying the wrong thing. One high school-aged girl, dressed in a denim skirt and cowboy boots, says she “really doesn’t follow politics.” A teenaged boy says he doesn’t “feel educated enough” to speak on the topic.
Of course, fans who disagreed with Sheeran’s stance or sentiments were few and far between at Saturday night’s show — although there were some with mixed feelings.
Two Boomer-aged sisters with flowing gray hair and matching denim outfits, say they were “on the fence for a while,” but ultimately decided to go. “There’s a time and place for political speech, and nothing’s gonna change [whether] I go to the concert or not,” one says.
“I’m for freedom of speech, by the way!” the other adds quickly, before heading toward the security line.
In fact, Sheeran says onstage that he actually saw an uptick in ticket sales, which convinced him to continue on with the tour, despite calls to cancel the remaining dates. “In the back of my mind, I saw the ticket sales and I didn’t see the cancellations,” he says. “Everyone’s 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 me.”
The nearly-packed arena backs up Sheeran’s claims, though two large sections sit completely empty, their ticketholders apparently relocated to consolidate the crowd. My own $90 ticket, purchased Thursday, was upgraded to a better seat that morning. In addition, while many inside the stadium paid upwards of $250 for their seats, tickets were available for as little as $66 on Saturday morning and had dropped to $44 immediately before the show.
And by the end of the two-and-a-half-hour concert, there’s plenty of the “unity, joy, escapism [and] love” that Sheeran hoped for in evidence, as fans prance happily across the concourse.
Outside the stadium and beyond, however, is a different story.