Ed Sheeran says US awards shows are 'filled with resentment and hatred'

• Ed Sheeran told Audacy's "The Julia Show" that US awards shows are "filled with resentment and hatred."
• Sheeran performed at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday.
• Sheeran said he preferred awards shows in England as they are a "good night out."

Ed Sheeran said on an Audacy show that he thinks American awards shows have a "horrible atmosphere."

The British singer performed new songs from his upcoming album "=" at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday. He was nominated for video of the year at the event.

On Tuesday, Sheeran was asked during his appearance on Audacy's "The Julia show" about behind-the-scenes secrets of awards shows.

"The room is filled with resentment and hatred toward everyone else and it's quite an uncomfortable atmosphere," he said.

The "Shivers" singer continued: "All the artists are sweet people, but they're like, surrounded by entourages that want them to win too, so it's one artist surrounded by ten people and another artist surrounded by ten people and everyone is kind of giving each other the side-eye."

Sheeran said that this happened at all US award shows he has been in, not just the VMAs, but said that it's different in England.

"In England, our award shows are just like, everyone gets drunk and no one really cares who wins or loses, it's just sort of a good night out," he said.

The Grammy-winning artist said that he was not alone in this feeling.

"People get the same feeling as me at those award shows," he said. "I've spoke to people and they're like, 'I just felt really depressed afterwards.' The atmosphere is just not nice… It's a really, really horrible atmosphere to be in there. I always walk away feeling sad and I don't like it."

Sheeran said that this atmosphere also continued to afterparties. The pop star said that when he hosted his own afterparty in 2015 for the European Music Awards, he told celebrities that they could only bring one person from the entourage to the top floor to get away from the bad atmosphere.

"Bieber came with one person," Sheeran said. "Duran Duran came just as the band. Macklemore came with one person and it was just a good atmosphere. It was really really nice. Everyone had fun. Everyone was drinking beer, playing pool. And it wasn't like 'who's bigger than you' or 'who won the award that night.'"

Sheeran added that he did a similar thing after the VMAs this year and said his party was attended by Camila Cabello, Shawn Mendes, and Jack Harlow.

Sheeran recently went viral on TikTok for saying that he "hates red carpets" after someone pointed out he looked "awkward" in all his red carpet pictures.