Ed Sheeran responds to claims he turned down chance to perform at King Charles III’s coronation

nme.com:

Ed Sheeran has denied claims that he refused to perform at King Charles III’s coronation concert at the weekend.The pop star was one of many musicians speculated to have declined an invitation for the Windsor Castle concert on Sunday (May 7).

However, the ‘Shape Of You’ singer put the rumours to rest during a chat on SiriusXM (via Metro), and confirmed that he didn’t attend the show because he was never invited.“No one ever asked me (to perform),” he said, explaining where he was for the historic event, “I assume if they went online and went ‘What’s Ed doing on May 6’, they would go ‘Oh, he’s playing in Dallas’.

I think that’s what’s happened.”The 32-year-old singer-songwriter instead appeared as a guest judge on American Idol on Sunday evening, alongside Alanis Morissette.

Both Sheeran and Morissette filled in for full-time judges on the show, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie, who were two of the main performers at the Windsor celebration.He continued to shed light on why the rumours arose — explaining that some assumed his absence was related to the news that artists refused to attend the event. “I think that’s what happened, but obviously, [the] press had the negative story of loads of people turning down the coronation… But I never ever turned it down,’ he stressed, adding that he was “excited to tune in” to the show.Other performers said to have declined the invitation from Buckingham Palace included Elton John, Adele, Harry Styles, The Spice Girls and Robbie Williams.Back in February, it was reported that the newly-crowned King Charles III was “very keen” on having Adele and Sheeran perform at the event, but were informed that they were “unavailable”. “There is a team set up to get the talent signed up so they.