Happy Monday!
I have an essay for paid subscribers today about Ed Sheeran’s remaining fans and how his fandom has seemingly been dwindling for years. Stan culture is the least important angle to this whole story, but I do think it’s interesting to think about who the Ed Sheeran stan is in 2026. Subscribe to the Yapper tier so you don’t miss it.
Every Monday letter gets a playlist. These are pop hits with attitude.
In this week’s playlist:
Wind It Up - Gwen Stefani
I’M ACTUALLY KINDA FAMOUS - Slayyyter
Party - Troye Sivan
Give It To Me - Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado
Sugar Trap - Jae Stephens
Get Naked (I Got a Plan) - Britney Spears
Pillow Fight - Tinashe
Speakerphone - Rebecca Black
Little things I want to share with you.
Celebs, they’re just like us: They have burner accounts, too (allegedly). People are speculating that Channing Tatum is running a secret Instagram profile and commenting hate under DeuxMoi posts of his ex-fiancée Zoë Kravitz and Harry Styles.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Paul brothers were asked to give a rousing speech to service members at the Pentagon, at Pete Hegseth’s invitation.
Tilly Norwood, the AI actress, glitched and inexplicably began speaking in Cantonese while appearing on Piers Morgan’s show.
Pop stars are getting creative with their tracklist reveals. Tinashe created faux magazine covers to unveil the songs on Popstar, out Sept. 25. Meanwhile, Rachel Chinouriri left a bag with her tracklist at a pub for a fan to find, which came with goodies for whoever found it. Her album I think I spoke too soon is out Oct. 16.
You surely are aware of the current controversy involving Ed Sheeran and his opening acts. But in case you missed it, Macklemore was kicked off of Sheeran’s Loop Tour after sharing a message of support for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank at the New Jersey stop on Sept. 5. Billionaire and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft — a longtime supporter of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — said he would not allow Macklemore to play at Gillette Stadium. Kraft had called Sheeran to inform him of this decision and to tell him that he rallied other stadium owners to do the same. Sheeran said the move was ultimately the tour promoter’s decision.
This prompted a major ongoing debate about art, politics, and free speech. Sheeran played both sides, refusing to condemn the ongoing genocide unfolding in Gaza and seemingly capitulating to pressure to oust Macklemore. This led to his remaining North American opening acts Aaron Rowe and Lukas Graham, his backing band Beoga, and upcoming South American opener Finneas to drop out of his tour.
While Sheeran elaborated on his stance about Israel and Palestine at his Philadelphia concert on Saturday — declaring the attack at the Nova music festival “horrific” and the assault in Gaza “catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate” — it hasn’t done much to convince people that he has a moral backbone. I don’t think his attempt to make his music the great unifier helped, as he said, “Everyone here can stand by people that they don’t agree with on everything, but they can always agree on singing these songs.”
Amid all of this, I’ve been curious about how his fans have felt about this situation. In the trenches of many a pop star controversy, you’d typically find a stan army ready to defend their faves — no matter if they are right or wrong. Look at the Barbz! Look at the Swifties! Look at the Directioners! They are known for protecting their artists at all costs.
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