'Had permission to busk, wasn't random': Ed Sheeran clarifies after Bengaluru cop stops jamming session

Ed Sheeran performs at a sidewalk on Church Street in Bengaluru. (Image credit: @KeypadGuerilla/X)

After the Bengaluru Police reportedly stopped English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran from performing on a sidewalk in the city, the singer clarified that he had prior "permission to busk" and he did not turn up "randomly".

The global icon was about a minute into his blockbuster number "Shape of You" on Church Street when the police pulled the plug on him. Literally.

A video of the incident is doing rounds on social media.

International artist @edsheeran was stopped playing in #Bangalore at church street. Even though, he had the permission. Literally! The cops pulled the plug. Damn sad! #Karnataka pic.twitter.com/C0F9tdm26g
Imran Khan (@KeypadGuerilla) February 9, 2025

In the 1.5 minute-clip, Ed Sheeran was seen singing and playing his guitar as onlookers joined in until the microphone was disconnected.

Taking to Instagram, the singer stated, "We had permission to busk btw, hence us playing in that exact spot, was planned out before, it wasn't just us randomly turning up."

However, he added, "All good though, see ya at the show tonight."

The pop superstar performed in the city on Saturday and is scheduled to take the stage again at NICE Grounds on Sunday. He announced an additional concert date for Bengaluru following overwhelming demand for tickets after the initial tour dates were revealed. This made the IT capital the only city in India to host back-to-back performances as part of his record-breaking Mathematics Tour.

Sheeran earlier said that he is always excited to perform in India. “Every time I come back to India, it feels more and more exciting. The metric that you would have measured success by back in 2014, I would have no idea that people liked my music here. It wasn't until coming here in 2015, that I realised for the first time that people really like my music here. Whereas now, it's clear that India is my biggest market.”

The Mathematics Tour--named after Ed Sheeran’s chart-topping albums ‘Plus,’ ‘Multiply,’ ‘Divide,’ ‘Equals,’ and ‘Subtract’--marks his return to India after his performances in 2015 and 2017.