Sheeran’s onstage act in pretty sound shape
The solo pop star is a stadium rarity. Obvious reasons exist for this: Arenas are large, impersonal coliseums designed for the modern equivalent of gladiatorial events — sports.
Recognizing this, bands from Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones to U2 have made mega productions a part of their concert experiences because a band and a couple of lights just doesn’t cut it in huge venues. Renowned solo artists don’t appear without backing bands, dancers and bells and whistles galore.
Yet Ed Sheeran sells out all over the world and performs with an acoustic guitar, a pedalboard and charm.
With the exception of Kanye West, he is one of the few acts around who can keep a crowd enraptured from the front row to the farthest reaches of the upper balcony. Music writers the world over have speculated on how the affable Brit pulls it off.
Here are five reasons a fellow with mediocre rapping skills, ballads that can make your teeth hurt and nothing remotely fashionable about him can hit No. 1 in 14 countries with his third album.
1 Experience
Cliché though it may be, experience counts. Coming up the ranks, Sheeran wouldn’t miss an opportunity to perform. Open mics, opening slots, late-night club closers — the U.K. press universally admits the guy worked. That type of incessant gigging gives an air of confidence to any performer and carries over to a crowd.
2 Energy
It says something that those who saw Taylor Swift on the Red Tour still mention Sheeran’s opening set. For all of Swift’s massive production, up to and including Sheeran dueting with her, she was equally matched by the ginger-haired lad from Framlingham, England. How did he manage this? By playing like he was close to exploding for his whole short opening set. The exposure he received playing all of the North American dates on this tour contributed greatly to why he’s selling out his headlining tour this time. Maybe all that boxing training from the Shape of You video is real?
3 Material
OK, this is divisive as many have had to hold back their gag reflex since The A Team first entered into heavy rotation on radio. Love it or loathe it, the tune had one of those hooks that won’t leave and Sheeran’s knack for this type of tune extends right up to Shape of You. Don’t forget he has also co-written hits for everyone from One Direction (Moments) to Swift (Everything Has Changed), as well as Justin Bieber’s Love Yourself. In other words, he’s a hitmaker. Plus, Thinking Out Loud might herald a new song movement where millennial writers feel sad for their ancient boomer parents.
4 Exposure
From Swift’s tour to opening slots for The Rolling Stones, Sheeran is like a ginger hobbit bobbing up on stage. Oh yeah, he had a top-10 single on the soundtrack for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. His music has graced hit films from The Fault in Our Stars to Bridget Jones’s Baby. And don’t forget he turned up singing a folk tune in the Season 7 premiere of Game of Thrones. He must have sounded pretty good too, because Arya Stark didn’t kill him.
5 Technology
The man wouldn’t exist without his gear — he would need a backing band to do what he does. But owing to modern sound processing and effects gear, Sheeran can be a one-man band looping every slap on his guitar body into drum tracks and treating his voice all sorts of ways. That he demonstrates this to adoring audiences in humorous and self-deprecating speeches doesn’t hurt. Nobody can accuse him of cheating.