Ed Sheeran’s opening number at his Saturday night show in Philadelphia was a reminder that even our most gifted songwriters are often intellectual and moral halfwits. 

Rather than sing — which is what people pay him a lot of money to do — Sheeran slouched onto the darkened stage and delivered a monologue.

He had mishandled the most recent controversy, he said, referring to a slow-rolling PR disaster that began with his opening act, Macklemore, ranting about “Palestine”; continued with venues threatening cancellation; and ended with all opening acts quitting the tour and demand for tickets dropping so rapidly that promoters had to slash prices by as much as 50%.

Why are people losing interest in Sheeran? Left-wing media would have you believe it’s because tens of thousands of Americans are passionate exclusively about Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and only support entertainment produced by artists who stand with Hamas.

A more likely reason: Most people just want to enjoy good music, not whiny lectures by know-nothing ninnies. 

Sheeran, on his end, delivered plenty of the latter.

“I am making mistakes,” he said tearfully, “and I am so, so sorry.” 

And then, he went on to deliver what he felt was the requisite apology he owed the “Palestine” crowd.

“What happened in Israel and at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain,” he said. “What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate.”

It was a mea culpa so soppy that it made the insufferably weepy song that followed, “Castle on the Hill,” seem profound by comparison. 

It also managed the commendable feat of packing a truly impressive dose of cowardice and stupidity into one short speech. 

First, the cowardice.

A red-headed lad who grew up with thick glasses and a severe stutter, Sheeran has spoken openly and frequently about being severely bullied throughout his childhood. That being the case, he ought to know bullies when he sees them, and the pro-Palestine movement is nothing but one endless exercise in bullying.

Their playbook is simple: Latch on to something or someone successful; demand that they put everything aside and talk only about “Palestine” or else be condemned as heartless or evil; watch everyone walk away in disgust because no one’s buying their breathless lying and relentless haranguing; and then claim to be the real victims before finding something new to destroy. 

Sheeran is one of the world’s most beloved entertainers. His previous tour netted nearly a billion dollars. He could’ve easily crushed the bullies by telling them that if they wanted to talk about “Palestine,” they were welcome to do so anywhere but on his stage, which was reserved for pop, not propaganda.

Instead, he caved, becoming merely the latest victim of this destructive cult of fanatics.

Because that’s what “Palestine” is — a death cult that shrieks and threatens and pressures you into submission. 

And when you submit, you must let go not only of your decency and backbone but also of common sense and logic. 

Consider Sheeran’s analysis of the situation. Is what’s happening in Gaza truly “unjustifiable”? 

Even if you accept the singer’s claim of the war being “disproportionate” — a claim observers who had spent their careers studying war, not crooning about making out in the backseat of a cab, rejected without too much difficulty — you’d have to be totally brainwashed to argue that there was no justification for Israel’s military operations in Gaza.

The Nova festival itself is justification, with 378 young concert-goers murdered by terrorists who crossed an internationally recognized border.

Add to that the wholesale slaughter of entire families, the rape of teen girls, and the kidnapping and abuse of hundreds of civilians, including babies and toddlers, and you’ve all the justification a sane person needs. 

Of course, the “Palestine” cult doesn’t care about the facts, which is why it started accusing the Jews of perpetrating genocide on Oct. 8, 2023, about three weeks before Israel launched its ground war against Hamas. They wanted a “ceasefire,” an Israeli surrender, one day after the Hamas-led terror attack.

And tearing up on that stage in Philadelphia, Sheeran showed that he, too, no longer cares about truth, beauty, and anything else that makes for great art.

Ed Sheeran caved to the bullies, and he has the plummeting ticket sales to show for it.