British pop star Ed Sheeran was stopped from busking in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru on Sunday, with police saying he didn’t have the necessary permissions.
A video showing a local police officer unplugging Sheeran’s microphone on Bengaluru’s Church Street – a crowded shopping and entertainment area – has since gone viral.
Officials told the ANI news agency a request from Mr Sheeran’s team to busk on the road was rejected to avoid congestion in the area.
But Sheeran insisted on Instagram that “we had permission to busk, by the way. Hence, us playing in that exact spot was planned out before. It wasn’t just us randomly turning up. All good though. See you at the show tonight.”
The incident took place ahead of his scheduled Mathematics Tour concert at NICE Grounds in Bengaluru.
Fans criticised the police intervention online, with one saying: “We live in an uncleocracy. And there’s nothing uncles love more than to stop young people from having fun,” referring to the number of vague rules that govern the use of public spaces in India.
However PC Mohan, a local MP from the ruling BJP party, said “even global stars must follow local rules – no permit, no performance!”
Sheeran is in India for the second year in a row on a 15-day tour, having already played in Pune Hyderabad and Chennai and with more concerts scheduled for Shillong in India’s north-east and the capital Delhi.
At his Bengaluru show, Sheeran surprised fans by singing two hit local songs in the Telugu language with singer Shilpa Rao on stage.
He previously collaborated with Indian singer and actor Diljit Dosanjh during the latter’s concert in Birmingham last year.
While in India he has also collaborated with sitar musician Megha Rawoot on a version of his hit song Shape of You.
Demand for live music concerts has been increasing in India, with Sheeran’s biggest-ever tour of the country coming close on the heels of Dua Lipa’s recent performance in Mumbai and Coldplay’s multi-city tour.
With growing disposable incomes, India is an emerging player in the “concert economy”, a recent Bank of Baroda report said, with live concerts set to be worth $700-900m (£550-730m).
