Ed Sheeran: +-=÷x Tour in Singapore

National Stadium
Feb 16

British singer Ed Sheeran is no stranger to Singapore, having played here several times since 2015.

Each show was bigger than the previous one. His return to the National Stadium for his fifth gig was his largest and grandest show in Singapore to date, and as the man himself announced, his largest audience in Asia ever.

According to concert organiser AEG, more than 60,000 fans packed the arena – a new record for the National Stadium. His last performance at the same venue in 2019 drew 51,000.

Sheeran, dressed in a black +-=÷x Tour T-shirt with the word Singapore on the front and back, kicked off his 130-minute concert at 7.45pm, a relatively early start for headliners at the venue.

The opening act, fellow British singer-songwriter Calum Scott, came on even earlier at a little after 6.30pm.

During his half-hour set, the former Britain’s Got Talent contestant sang his hit ballads, such as Dancing On My Own (2016) and You Are The Reason (2017), and won the audience over when he shouted, “Huat ah!”, as a Chinese New Year greeting.

Sheeran will also play a second night in Singapore, albeit for a smaller, more intimate show, at the 977-capacity Capitol Theatre on Feb 17, which happens to be his 33rd birthday.

Here are three highlights from the National Stadium concert.

1. JJ Lin’s surprise cameo

Close to the end of the show, Sheeran announced that he had a special guest, which turned out to be Mandopop singer-songwriter JJ Lin, arguably Singapore’s biggest music star.

The pair did a duet of Lin’s 2015 hit Twilight, with Sheeran singing his lines in Mandarin.

Lin improvised some lyrics. “Ed Sheeran, Singapore loves you”, he sang at one point. At the end of the song, Lin slipped in a line from Sheeran’s Shape Of You (2017) and sang, “I’m in love with the shape of you”.

Judging by the screams of approval, getting Lin to do a cameo was certainly a canny move that not only endeared Sheeran to his fans, but also guaranteed plenty of buzz on TikTok and Instagram.

2. The revolving 360-degree stage

Set in the centre of the stadium, Sheeran’s round stage meant that he was surrounded by the audience, and ensured that he would be able to face the fans no matter where they sat.

On the stage was a constantly rotating, treadmill-like ring, so the singer would be moving even while standing still. The stage would occasionally light up with pyrotechnics, and its halo-like roof had LED screens that screened animations and close-up shots of Sheeran.

The main stage was surrounded by smaller stages with LED screens, and housed musicians who backed him up on several songs, such as upbeat show openers Tides (2021) and Blow (2019).

Sheeran mostly performed solo in his previous tours, but decided to take along a band for his current global jaunt, so he could play tunes that required additional musicians. He also involved violinist Alicia Enstrom on Galway Girl (2017), a sprightly musician who epitomised the song’s fiddle-playing title character.

The whole set-up was a far cry from the stark stage and simple LED screen that accompanied his solo set at his first Singapore show at The Star Theatre in 2015.

3. Sheeran’s early birthday celebration

The National Stadium show took place the night before he was to turn 33 on Feb 17, something he reminded fans of several times during the gig.

“It’s my birthday, I want to dance, who’s with me?” he hollered before launching into a medley of Don’t (2014) and No Diggity (1996), a song by American R&B quartet Blackstreet.

Several times, certain groups in the audience would sing him a birthday song, but the singer did not seem to hear them.

Still, Sheeran was in a good mood, constantly pacing the stage, telling stories about his past and explaining how his loop pedals helped his one-man show sound like a full band.

There were some sombre moments too, such as when he spoke about how the song Eyes Closed (2023) was written after his close friend, British music entrepreneur-DJ Jamal Edwards, died in 2022.

But Sheeran’s lively songs outnumbered the melancholic tunes. He rolled out a setlist that covered pretty much all of his discography that included early hits from his 2011 debut album + (Plus), such as The A Team and You Need Me, I Don’t Need You.

He performed Happier (2017), a tune that he said he had not played in five years, but was included because he found out it was popular among his Singapore fans.

This was his favourite show so far, he declared, adding that the ride from the airport to the city the previous day made Singapore feel like home to him.