UK culture secretary says she has ‘enormous sympathy’ for Ed Sheeran as support acts leave tour

16 Sep 2026, 12:51 by Diarmuid Pepper, https://www.thejournal.ie/author/diarmuid-pepper/ · TheJournal.ie

UK CULTURE SECRETARY Lisa Nandy has said she has “enormous sympathy” for Ed Sheeran in the wake of his supporting acts dropping out of his US tour.

Lisa Nandy added that she “hope it doesn’t harm his tour”.

Acts that had been due to support Sheeran pulled out of the US tour after rapper Macklemore was dropped from several upcoming gigs.

Macklemore was dropped from Sheeran’s tour after advocating for Palestinians in two performances while supporting the British singer-songwriter.

Messina Touring Group, promoter of the US leg of Sheeran’s Loop Tour, said it has been notified by venues on the upcoming tour dates that they would not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the line-up.

“After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates,” Messina Touring Group said in a statement.

Macklemore said Sheeran was put “in a fucked up position” and added: “I hope this isn’t the end of my relationship with Ed.”

Since Macklemore was dropped from the tour, all of Sheeran’s supporting acts have quit.

This included Dublin singer Aaron Rowe and traditional Irish band Beoga, in addition to Lukas Graham and Finneas (who is Billie Eilish’s brother).

In addition to this, acts that had supported Sheeran on earlier tour dates, such as Irish band Amble and BIIRD, have said that they support Macklemore and the musicians who have since pulled out of the tour.

Nandy today told LBC radio: “I really feel for Ed Sheeran in all of this, actually, because you know he’s got support acts who he wants to profile and platform.

“He’s got promoters saying that they won’t when politics is being introduced to the stadium. I think he’s been left in a really difficult and impossible position.

“I hope it doesn’t harm his tour. He’s one of our most successful artists and also one of the nicest people I’ve ever worked with… I have enormous sympathy for the position that he finds himself in.”

Meanwhile, Nandy said there is a desire among a lot of concert-goers to leave politics “aside”.

“The world is quite a difficult place at the moment,” said Nandy, “and I think a lot of people do also quite like to have a space where they can go, where they can leave all of that aside.

“And so I do understand that for a lot of people, they just want to leave politics aside for a bit and be able to enjoy the music.”