Known for his soulful vocals and ridiculously romantic songs, two-time Grammy nominee Ed Sheeran made his debut appearance in Singapore at The Star Performing Arts Centre on a stormy Saturday night.
Our local audience soared as the lights dimmed, and the average-sized British redhead strolled onto the stage with his signature ukelele. The crowd cheered unceasingly when Ed Sheeran burst into “I’m A Mess”, a high-energy track off his latest album X (pronounced: multiply).
And so, this was the beginning of our 100-minute dream.
Ed’s down-to-earth character reminds us exactly of why we love him, as he injects honest jokes between songs: “If you don’t know the words to the songs, just make them up”. Even with just his loop pedal and guitar, Ed Sheeran proved that he is so much more than a man busking on stage.
The show is essentially just an acoustic show, it’s me and a guitar. But that doesn’t mean I want you to be quiet – I want you to sing ’em out with all your heart! – Ed Sheeran
Apart from an entire audience serving as his back-up choir singing along to every word, Ed Sheeran utilises an LED backdrop to keep us visually entertained, engaging aesthetically pleasing videos to complement his music. Picture this: Dreamy music video, with the artist right in front of you.
When the heavier songs like “Don’t” and “Drunk”, the lights blast a blinding red and orange hue, but fades back into a light blue and purple when Ed serenades us with tender ballads like “Photograph” and of course, the crowd favourite “Thinking Out Loud“.
We knew the dreamiest song of the night was “The A Team”, when Ed initiates for the audience to do the typical “Take out your phones, let’s make this place shine” trick. But boy, was it gorgeous looking at a sea of starry lights while singing along to this breathtaking song about real struggles of everyday life.
Ed left us with “Sing”, his first single off X as the last encore song for the night, and sneakily snapped a photo of us while we were still dancing along to the ooooo’s.
https://instagram.com/p/0Nf1IjkpCx/?taken-by=teddysphotos
Ed Sheeran’s concert here was indeed effortlessly breathtaking. Ed’s emancipating vocals and addictive tunes proved enough to erupt an entire sold-out concert. But beyond this, Ed Sheeran’s phenomenal simplicity represented something special most of us want to believe in – Hope. It is the hope that authentic popularity still exists, and that perhaps authenticity does not always come packaged with excessive branding or strapping good looks.
Ed Sheeran showed us that maybe, just maybe, one British redhead, a loop pedal and three guitars are enough to create magic.
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Cover Photo: NookMag
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