Ed Sheeran announces new tour opening acts after Macklemore controversy

Ed Sheeran has announced a new set of support acts for his ‘Loop’ tour after Macklemore was dropped as a support act following his speech calling for a “free Palestine”.

• READ MORE: Ed Sheeran – ‘Play’ review: a hasty retreat to the genre-spanning of old.

After making his comments on-stage, Robert Kraft – who owns the Gillette Stadium and is also owner of the New England Patriots – spoke out about the situation, saying he found Macklemore’s speech “deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community”.

Após mais desaprovação de nomes como Pink e o Israeli American Council, o rapper foi retirado da turnê.

Since then, countless big names including Greta Thunberg, Massive Attack, Roger Waters, Dropkick Murphys, Amelia Dimoldenberg, Billy Bragg and Hayley Williams have shown their support for Macklemore, and Sheeran’s band and other tour support acts have pulled out in solidarity with the rapper.

Agora, Isaac Slade, ex‑cantor principal do The Fray, e o concorrente do American Idol Brooks Rosser, se juntaram para apoiar Sheeran em uma série de shows nos EUA.

The latter meanwhile, will also support Sheeran at his Indianapolis show tomorrow.

Sheeran still has a number of remaining tour dates in Chile, Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico with no support acts yet announced.

Por volta do início da controvérsia com Macklemore, Sheeran se manifestou sobre a situação, dizendo que não era “not complicit” e “appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine” – vendo o “suffering and pain caused on both sides” como uma “tragedy”.

The ‘Shape Of You’ singer later returned to the stage in Philadelphia and apologised for “making mistakes”.

Other big names to speak out on the situation include Tom Morello, who recently told NME that he admired Macklemore for refusing to retreat from his stance and adding that “courage is contagious”, and CMAT who shared that while she thinks some of the backlash towards Sheeran is “unfair”, she thinks the pop star could have handled the situation differently.

Em outro lugar, Bob Geldof defendeu Sheeran, mas disse que “really admire[d] Macklemore” e aqueles que haviam se afastado do tour. O antigo artista de apoio de Sheeran, Aaron Rowe, também disse que a raiva sobre a situação deveria ser direcionada para “the likes of Robert Kraft”, e Zach Bryan usou uma camiseta “Free Palestine” durante um show no Gillette Stadium como um ataque a Kraft.

Lorde also recently called out Kraft, posting a photo of her wearing a jacket with a “Free Palestine” slogan while also trying to tag Kraft in the post.

Meanwhile, Bono also recently shared that Sheeran didn’t want to “get into politics” when he collaborated with U2 on their 2026 single ‘Yours Eternally’.

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