Does a video show Ed Sheeran playing a concert alone with a "loop station" after his backing band Beoga quit? No, that's not true: The video footage shows Sheeran in concert on July 1, 2022 at Wembley Stadium in London. Beoga published a statement announcing their departure from the remaining portion of Sheeran's Loop Tour Sept. 15, 2026, and no Loop Tour concerts are scheduled until Sept. 19, 2026, in Philadelphia.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the @bekahj account on X on Sept. 16, 2026. It read:
Everyone quit on him and he still k*lled it! All new respect for Ed Sheeran
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @bekahj on X.)
The two-minute, 42-second video of Sheeran playing solo on a circular stepped stage shows the logo of Australia's video-on-demand network 9Now in the lower right corner. This streaming platform is only available in Australia. A two-minute, 45-second video (archived here) published on YouTube Dec. 6, 2022 titled Ed Sheeran - Shivers (Live at Wembley from the Full Circle documentary) appears to be the same clip plus a few seconds. Information about the 2022 documentary Full Circle is on the IMDb page (archived here) and the website of the production company, Mushroom Studios (archived here).
A different video (archived here) published on YouTube on July 4, 2022, is titled Ed Sheeran - Shivers - 1/7/2022 Mathematics Tour - Wembley Stadium, London (embedded below). It begins with the same portion of the concert that is depicted in the 9Now clip posted on X -- with Sheeran explaining how the loop station works.
The controversy
On Sept. 4 and 5, 2026, the rapper Macklemore made pro-Palestine statements on stage at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The promoter of the tour, Messina Touring Group, dropped Macklemore from the tour. On Sept. 15, 2026, USA Today reported four other acts involved in the tour decided to also leave (archived here).
Below are statements from Ed Sheeran and Beoga, the backing band that announced their departure from the tour. Sheeran's statement was posted to Instagram (archived here) on Sept. 15, 2026, and Beoga's statement was posted to Instagram (archived here) the same day. In the third slide of the Instagram post Sheeran wrote:
Macklemore coming off tour was the promoter's decision, it was not mine. Macklemore's contract for the tour was with the promoter, not me.
