Isaac Slade opened Ed Sheeran’s Oct. 3 Atlanta show with an abbreviated set at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. He sang “How to Save a Life” and “You Found Me” before Sheeran took the stage.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Oct. 3
The Atlanta booking was not a standard tour stop. Sheeran had added Slade as a special guest opener for the Loop Tour date after Macklemore was dropped from the lineup, turning one concert into a one-night replacement slot rather than a routine support act shift.
Slade’s set carried a second layer of context. He addressed the war in Gaza from the stage and urged the crowd toward common ground, while Sheeran’s team has already used the tour to draw different responses from different cities and different artists.
From MetLife Stadium to Atlanta
On Sept. 4 and 5, Macklemore had opened Sheeran’s shows at MetLife Stadium and performed “Hind’s Hall” while calling for “free Palestine.” That is the backdrop to the Oct. 3 change: the opening position on the Loop Tour was no longer stable once venues indicated they would not allow the shows to proceed with Macklemore on the lineup.
Ed Sheeran said the promoter made the call after those venue objections, and the fallout spread quickly. Aaron Rowe, Finneas, Lukas Graham and Beoga withdrew after Macklemore’s removal, leaving the Atlanta date unusually stripped down before Slade stepped in.
Toronto in August
In August, Sheeran and Slade had already performed “How to Save a Life” together in Toronto, which gave the Atlanta appearance a clear connection point even as the rest of the tour shifted around them. Sheeran said he had been a fan of Slade’s music and songwriting during his formative years as a teenager.
For readers tracking the Loop Tour, the practical takeaway is simple: Slade’s Atlanta set was a one-off guest appearance, not a broader replacement announcement. Macklemore has moved on to his own Free Palestine Tour, and the remaining question inside Sheeran’s run is whether Slade appears anywhere else.
