Ed Sheeran's streetside dress rehearsal in India over the weekend came to a quick close, with a cop pulling the plug on the performance. NBC News reports that the 33-year-old singer was busking Sunday on a sidewalk in Bengaluru ahead of his Mathematics Tour concert that night, getting bystanders to sing along to "Shape of You." Video circulating online shows Sheeran, sporting a white tee, green shorts, and sunglasses, leading the crowd in song on the well-trafficked Church Street—until a uniformed police officer shows up, yanks the plugs to Sheeran's mic and guitar out of their outlets, and shuts the whole thing down.
Sheeran can be heard telling his audience that he'd had the OK to busk in that spot, but he complies with the authorities, waves goodbye, and says, "See you later" to his fans. "We had permission to busk," Sheeran insisted on Instagram later Sunday, per CNN, adding that the performance "was planned out before, it wasn't just us randomly turning up." Local police, however, say that while Sheeran's team had indeed asked for the thumbs-up to busk there, they'd denied that request.
"We rejected [the ask] because Church Street is a very busy area and we try to keep the people moving there," a Bengaluru police official tells CNN. Some defended the cops for kicking Sheeran off his performance perch—"even global stars must follow local rules," one lawmaker wrote on X—but others rolled their eyes, saying that local authorities have more urgent matters they should be attending to, like traffic congestion and lack of water in the city. (More Ed Sheeran stories.)
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