Ed Sheeran said he’s lost family and close friends after igniting controversy due to Macklemore getting kicked off his Loop Tour due to the rapper’s pro-Palestine comments.
The devastated musician broke down in tearsand sat cross-legged onstage at one point during his concert at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia Saturday night, reflecting on the week in which all his opening acts quit — including his own backing band — in solidarity with Macklemore.
“In these situations you really find out who your friends are. It’s been a weird week,” he told the crowd in video captured by a fan. “It happened very quickly. At the same time, I had so many people telling me to cancel this tour and so many people I’ve known for years and years and years they’re kind of backing away.”
“In the back of my mind, I saw the ticket sales for this gig and I didn’t see cancellations, I saw people buying tickets for this gig,” he continued as the crowd started to cheer. “Everyone’s telling me to cancel and I’m feeling all of my friends and family and people I know abandon me.”
But the “Thinking Out Loud” singer said he was performing for his fans.
“I look at the end of the week and I see 50,000 people who haven’t abandoned me,” he noted. “People will say what they want, but I am doing this for you. I love you. I love this.”
He called the concert the best show of his life, but called the past week one of the worst weeks he’d experienced.
He later cried as he said that he felt so much love from the audience, after he was initially worried about his safety and that people would boo him.
“The world is a scary place right now, America is a scary place right now,” he said, before pointing to the audience and noting, “This gives hope.”
Ahead of the show, Sheeran, 35, took drastic security measures because he feared people would throw things at him onstage.
“At this point in the show, to be honest, I usually go out on the B stage,” he said,
“I apologize that today is not the usual Loop show,” he continued. “I took the B stage out because was afraid of what might happen if I stood in the middle. And I will admit that.”
Although the Grammy-winner didn’t name the family who abandoned him, his cousin Jethro Sheeran publicly blasted him online Thursday.
“Finally it’s all coming out! I’m ashamed of my cousin Ed he’s done. Finally the world and all his fans see through him. He’s not a good person, I don’t like his music so I can’t say he’s even a good artist,” Jethro posted on Instagram.
He also wrote, “He’s honestly a selfish individual with malicious, cunning ways… I’m his first blood cousin and he screwed me over, made fun of my mental health and mental health in general.”
Despite Macklemore previously saying that Ed was pressured into dropping him from his tourby stadium owners, Jethro said he believes Ed made the decision himself, calling his cousin “shady” and a “coward.”
“In my opinion he’s a bad human. Just my opinion from my experiences,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, Macklemore, 43, has donated all the money he says he made from the Loop tour before getting dropped — $1 million — to Palestinian relief efforts. He called on Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots and Kraft Group, to match his donation.
Kraft, who owns Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachasetts, and was one of the stadium owners who refused to let the “Thrift Shop” rapper perform after his “Free Palestine” speech, donated $2 million after he said Sheeran asked him to.
In a statement about the massive donation, Kraft, 85, insisted that he’s dedicated his life to trying to help people come together and believes that “all lives are worth protecting.”
Sheeran’s next tour dates are Sept. 25 and Sept. 26 at Kraft’s Gillette Stadium.
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