Ed Sheeran broke his hiatus from the stage to join Khalid for a duet at his London show on Tuesday night (17.09.19).
The 28-year-old superstar announced he is taking a break from touring for “18 months” after he wrapped up his lengthy ‘Divide Tour’ with a show in Chantry Park, Ipswich, last month, but he surprised fans at the ‘Eastside’ hitmaker’s ‘Free Spirit World Tour’ show at The O2 to perform their hit song ‘Beautiful People’.
The pair also shared a hug on stage much to the delight of the sold-out crowd at the 20,000-capacity arena.
Announcing his break, Ed said: “As you may or not know, I’ve been on the ‘Divide’ tour for over two years now and this is the last day of the whole thing. There is something very bittersweet about it. I love that you guys are here and we are ending it in Ipswich. This is my last gig for probably 18 months.”
The ‘Castle on the Hill’ hitmaker played to around nine million people on his extensive tour – which was recently named the biggest tour ever – and Ed likened the end of the chapter to “breaking up with a girlfriend”. He added: “We’ve played all around the world. Glastonbury, Wembley Stadium. All these amazing venues, America, New Zealand, Australia, Asia, South America – it’s been a wild one. It’s been an emotional day for a lot of people backstage. It kind of feels like, in a weird way, that you’re breaking up with a girlfriend that you’ve been with for years.
“It sounds odd but it has been a long tour.”
Ed then took a moment to thank his fans for “giving [him] a chance”.
Before playing his last song, he said: “This is a Framlingham Town football shirt. I am from Framlingham. Suffolk is my home. I am so happy to be ending this mammoth tour here.
“I want to say thank you to everyone on this tour. Thank you to everyone who has given me a chance. This is my last song. I wrote this when I was 15 years old. See you in a few years time. Thank you.”
The decision to take a touring break came after the ‘Perfect’ singer mentioned he would like to start a family with his wife Cherry Seaborn.
Ed’s ‘Divide Tour’ was announced earlier this month to have broken a record set by U2 in 2011 for the most attended and highest grossing tour of all time.
In 2011, U2’s ‘360 Tour’ brought in a staggering $735.4 million after the band concluded an intense 110 show run between June 2009 and July 2011.
The ‘Divide Tour’ beat U2’s record on Ed’s 246th show of the lengthy trek, making $736.7 million when he still had several weeks to go before concluding with this week’s final show, which was the tour’s 255th concert.
