PHILADELPHIA, Sept 21 — Ed Sheeran broke down during his concert here after describing the fallout from the controversy surrounding rapper Macklemore’s removal from his tour as the hardest week of his life.

The Sun reported that Sheeran told the 50,000-strong crowd he had felt abandoned by friends, family and people he had known for years amid calls for him to cancel his Loop Tour.

Sheeran said he had been urged by numerous people to call off the tour, but chose to continue after seeing that ticket sales for the Philadelphia show had held up.

“In these situations you really find out who your friends are. It’s been a weird week. 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,” he said.

“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. Everyone’s telling me to cancel and I’m feeling all of my friends and family and people I know abandon me,” Sheeran added.

He told fans that the 50,000 people who attended had shown him they had not abandoned him, saying: “People will say what they want, but I am doing this for you. I love you. I love this.”

The singer also acknowledged the wider dispute over Macklemore, who was removed from the tour after making pro-Palestinian comments during performances, a move that was followed by the withdrawal of Sheeran’s other support acts and backing band in solidarity.

Sheeran said the turmoil had made him question whether he wanted to continue his career in music, while he assembled a new backing band at short notice, giving its members only three days to learn his catalogue.

He also removed the smaller B-stage used during previous shows to bring him closer to the audience, saying he had been worried that people might throw objects at him and that he had concerns about his safety.

Addressing the Israel-Palestine conflict during the concert, Sheeran said he had never wanted to be an activist musician but could no longer remain silent about what he described as a humanitarian issue.

“I’ve had to take, and make, difficult decisions, and I am making mistakes and I’m so, so sorry for them,” he said, before describing the October 7 attack in Israel as horrific and saying the situation in Gaza was “catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate”.

He also spoke of the civilian deaths in Gaza and children killed in the conflict, while saying systemic injustice in the West Bank could not be ignored.

The controversy intensified after Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft barred Macklemore from the venue following the rapper’s “Free Palestine” comments, with Sheeran later saying the decision to remove Macklemore from the tour was made by the promoter rather than him.

Support acts Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe and Finneas, along with Sheeran’s backing band Beoga, subsequently withdrew from the tour in solidarity with Macklemore.

Earlier in the week, Sheeran’s cousin Jethro had also criticised him online, calling him a “coward” and a “bad human”, according to The Sun.