Ed Sheeran responded to the controversies surrounding his ongoing US tour when taking to the stage at the Lincoln Financial Field stadium in Philadelphia this weekend, initially with a scripted speech in which he said “I’ve had to take and make difficult decisions” in the last week and “I am making mistakes”.  

The latest show on Sheeran’s ‘Loop’ tour started later in the day than originally planned after all of his support acts pulled out in solidarity with Macklemore, who was axed as a support act on the tour after venue owners objected to his on-stage support for Palestine at earlier concerts. 

Sheeran has come under heavy criticism for not standing by Macklemore and insisting that he stay on the bill. An official statement put out by Sheeran on the matter last week did little to placate his critics and his scripted speech on Saturday is unlikely to have made much difference either. 

However, local media have reported that many fans at the show reacted positively to what Sheeran said about the recent controversies, perhaps ending speculation that he might be forced to ultimately cancel the rest of his current tour dates.

The debate continues within the music industry over what the Sheeran tour controversy tells us about the impact of politics on the business of being an artist in 2026, both for those artists who want to be political on stage and for those who do not.

And, of course, that impact is felt across the artist community, with both Zara Larson and Sylvan Esso also dealing with their own political challenges in recent days. 

Sheeran’s on-stage response to the controversy 

Sheeran took to the stage on Saturday evening after an incredibly eventful week that followed the news Macklemore had been axed from the ‘Loop’ tour after various stadium owners – led by billionaire Robert Kraft – threatened to pull upcoming shows if the rapper was still involved.

In his scripted response on Saturday, Sheeran said he was used to having his music criticised, but “this week the criticism was about something much more important”. Stressing that “I’ve never wanted to be an activist musician”, he admitted that recent events had “put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet”. 

On the free speech point, he said “I am deeply worried about the idea of venues pre-approving content of performers”, adding that “this happens in so many places I perform around the world”, but “should never happen in the free world”. However, he declined to take that viewpoint to the logical conclusion of criticising Kraft and his fellow stadium owners over their censorship of Macklemore. 

He then said he would address “the question of where I stand on the situation in Israel and Palestine”, obviously aware that Macklemore’s statement about his axing from the tour criticised Sheeran’s bid to be “apolitical” on this issue because, as far as the rapper is concerned, “there is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed”. 

That said, Sheeran then delivered a carefully balanced statement on “the situation in Israel and Palestine”, in a bid to remain as neutral as possible. On the one hand, “what happened in Israel and at the Nova music festival on October 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain”. 

But on the other hand, “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, of children’s lives, and the systemic injustice we’re seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked”.

He then said he is “speaking to people across the spectrum to work out how to make a contribution that helps victims of these terrible times, and listening and learning because I do not know enough”. 

Later in the show he talked more informally about the events of the last week, revealing that “so many people” had been “telling me to cancel this tour”, while also “falling out of my life”, with people “I’ve known for years and years and years just kind of backing away”. 

He did, however, find a team of musicians willing to join him for the part of the show that he doesn’t usually perform solo, his backing band Beoga having also pulled out in support of Macklemore.

Introducing those performers, which included violinist Alicia Enstrom, he said that not only had these musicians had just three days to learn his setlist, but they agreed to perform “with the knowledge that the world may hate them too for standing on stage with me”.

Aaron Rowe defends Sheeran after quitting tour

Ahead of this weekend’s show, one of the support artists who pulled out of Sheeran’s concert in solidarity with Macklemore – Aaron Rowe – published a new statement on social media arguing that the focus of angry fans should be Kraft and his moves to silence criticism of Israel within American stadiums, rather than the endless bashing of Sheeran himself. 

“I think you are all focusing on the wrong person here”, Rowe said. “All I keep hearing is Ed Sheeran this, Ed Sheeran that. When you really should be focusing on the likes of Robert Kraft”. 

Kraft – who owns the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough where Sheeran is due to play later this week – is a vocal supporter of Israel, and rallied other stadium owners to join his Macklemore boycott. 

Rowe went on, “you really should be focusing on the Zionist lobbies that are trying to silence the voices of people who are shouting about genocide, the genocide that is happening in Palestine right now by Israel”. 

Therefore, “you should be using this opportunity to plaster Robert Kraft’s face everywhere. Someone who tried to shut down free speech. Someone who tried to silence the voices of people who are shouting about genocide. That’s what you should be using your energy on, not fucking Ed Sheeran, for fuck’s sake”.

Zara Larsson pulls from Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Sheeran isn’t the only artist navigating tricky politics at the moment. Zara Larsson has pulled out of a performance at the upcoming Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after fans began to criticise the booking because of the role of the United Arab Emirates in the ongoing Sudanese civil war.

That criticism increased last week in part because of the controversy over Sheeran’s shows, which put the spotlight back on the fact Macklemore cancelled a concert in Dubai back in 2024 over the UAE’s alleged support of the Rapid Support Force, a paramilitary group which – LBC notes – has “slaughtered thousands of civilians and held cities under siege” as part of the deadly conflict in Sudan. 

Larsson initially confirmed she had pulled out of the Abu Dhabi concert in response to a fan post on social media which said, “please read about what UAE is doing to Sudan then cancel your Abu Dhabi show!” The singer simply wrote in response to that post, “I will not be going to Abu Dhabi”. 

Despite the seeming connection between Larsson’s decision to cancel her performance in Abu Dhabi and the online fan criticism of UAE, in a subsequent statement she said there were various reasons for why she had changed her plans. 

She told fans, “I wanna perform and spread joy and music for people in every country, because no single person is their government. I’ve met so many wonderful people from every corner of the world and I know this to be true in my heart”. 

However, “I have spent some time thinking about everything and decided that to not do the show aligns with me the most right now, for many different personal reasons beyond politics”. 

Sylvan Esso reluctantly return to Spotify 

Elsewhere in recent days we had another reminder that artists are not just navigating tricky politics on the live side of the industry. That reminder came courtesy of Amelia Meath, one half of Sylvan Esso, who told fans on social media that the duo had reluctantly put their music back onto Spotify.

Sylvan Esso were among the flurry of artists to pull their music from Spotify last year in protest over investments made by the streaming service’s co-founder and Executive Chairman Daniel Ek into German weapons tech company Helsing.

In a new update to fans, Meath said that not having the duo’s music on Spotify for the last year “felt really, really good”. However, so dominant is Spotify in the streaming music domain, it’s simply not commercially viable to maintain the boycott in the long-term. 

Boycotting the market-leading streamer was “incredibly hard in ways that we knew were coming and in ways that we hadn’t predicted”, she explained, before adding, “it has become more and more apparent that if we are going to continue to employ everyone that we employ, it is unsustainable for us to not be on that platform”. Which is why the duo’s music will be available to stream on Spotify once again. 

But, she was keen to stress, the “political views” of Heath and bandmate Nick Sanborn “have not changed – we do not want to support the business of war”. But, while she would prefer it if fans did not listen to their music on Spotify, and instead connected via other platforms, “it’s where 82% of streaming happens”. 

“I get it”, she said, before adding, “but I don’t fucking like it. I don’t like it, and I’m really frustrated by this reality. But the financial reality is the reality right now”. 

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