Ed Sheeran speaks out in Philly, says controversy ‘put me in the middle’

During his Sept. 19 tour stop in Philadelphia, singer Ed Sheeran immediately addressed the public controversy that has unfolded over the last week, which left him with no openers or his original band.

At Lincoln Financial Field, Sheeran took the stage solo at the top of the show, acknowledging that he has faced criticism about his music before, but this past week was “about something much more important.”

Mentioning that he didn’t want to disappoint fans and has “never wanted to be an activist musician,” Sheeran addressed the controversies surrounding his tour.

“This has put me in the middle of an important [and] passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet,” he said.

His shows and music are meant to be about “unity, not division, about humanity, not politics,” Sheeran said, reasoning why he stays away from political commentary.

“But this is a humanitarian issue, and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore,” he said.

“What happened in Israel [and at the] Nova Music Festival on October 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain,” Sheeran said.

“What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate,” he continued.

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/travel/