Ed Sheeran cries onstage and introduces his new backing band: Who are the musicians?

Dubai: Ed Sheeran walked onto a Philadelphia stage on Saturday night with a band nobody had heard of, an apology, and a speech he had spent a week avoiding.

The singer wept while addressing the crowd at Lincoln Financial Field, in his first concert since four supporting acts abandoned the Loop Tour over the removal of Macklemore. He also confirmed the lineup of the musicians who had agreed to replace his longtime collaborators Beoga, with almost no notice.

The show was pushed back to 8pm local time, which is 4am on Sunday in the UAE, having originally been advertised for 5.30pm. As of Sunday morning in Philadelphia, no replacement support act had been announced at all.

Who is in the new band

The most immediate practical problem Sheeran faced was the middle of his own set. Beoga had been joining him for several songs each night, including tracks the Irish folk band co-wrote with him.

He called longtime collaborator Alicia Enstrom, who helped put together a group of musicians willing to join him onstage.

He introduced them before Galway Girl. "Mike on drums, CJ on keys, Eric on bass, Clay on guitar, and my dear, dear friend Alicia on violin. Please make some noise."

Enstrom, a violinist, composer and producer who has toured with Sheeran previously, was the only name the crowd would have recognised. The rest were assembled in days.

"They've had three days to learn these songs. Three days to learn these songs!" Sheeran told the audience.

Instagram commenters on a Billboard clip of the introduction have identified the four as Mike Reident, CJ Branch, Eric Whatley and Clay Sears, though none of those surnames has been confirmed by Sheeran's camp or the tour.

Why he needed them

Before bringing the group on, Sheeran set out the bind he had been in. He told the Philadelphia crowd that he had wondered how he was going to get musicians to stand on stage with him in a week when no one wanted to stand on stage with him.

He added that the five had said yes while the world believed he was a certain kind of person, a point he returned to more than once.

Much of the Loop Tour is performed alone anyway, built around the loop station at his feet. Beoga's absence changed a segment, not the whole show. The optics were another matter.

The speech that opened the night

Sheeran did not wait for the encore.

"This is not usually how I would open the show, but before I play some songs tonight, I hope it's okay if I say a few words," he began, going on to say that he was making mistakes and was sorry.

He then set out a position he had spent years declining to take. "This is a humanitarian issue and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore," he said, describing what happened in Israel and at the Nova Music Festival on 7 October as horrific and something that compounded centuries of Jewish pain.

On Gaza, he said, "What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate," he told the crowd, adding that the scale of civilian and child deaths had broken his heart and that the injustice unfolding in the West Bank could not be overlooked.

He also said he had never wanted to be an activist musician, and that his concerts had always been intended as a safe space for everyone.

How the week unfolded

The chain of events started at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey in early September, when Macklemore told the crowd "Free Palestine" and performed Hind's Hall while opening for Sheeran.

A petition from the Israeli-American Council followed, calling for his removal. Macklemore later said on Instagram that stadium owners, led by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, had told the promoter he would not be permitted to perform. Kraft has said the decision related to Macklemore's remarks and to what he described as a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric.

Sheeran responded on Instagram that the call had come from Messina Touring Group, the promoter, rather than from him. Within hours, Finneas, Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe and Beoga had all pulled out.

Aaron Rowe and Beoga both cited Irish history in their statements. Finneas said artists should not be silenced for speaking up for the oppressed. Lukas Graham argued that no one's bank balance should decide which suffering is acknowledged.

Macklemore has donated $1 million, roughly Dh3.67 million, since his exit. Kraft has said Sheeran is donating $2 million, around Dh7.34 million, towards humanitarian relief in Gaza, and that he is matching it.

The Loop Tour continues across North America before heading to Latin America in November and December.