Young fan’s number with star ‘strange but amazing’
Pippa Guerin, a 10-year-old from Palmerston North, has called her impromptu performance in front of nearly 50,000 Ed Sheeran fans a ‘‘strange but amazing’’ experience.
When Sheeran got to his hit song Galway Girl during Thursday night’s soldout show at Wellington’s Sky Stadium, he stopped, in what appeared to be a genuine moment of forgetfulness.
He then asked if there was someone in the crowd who knew the entire song’s lyrics, and invited Pippa to come up and sing with him.
Pippa’s dad, Tim Guerin, said the experience was completely surreal.
‘‘He was asking for someone who could help him out with the words and Pippa was right there at the front with her cousins.
‘‘He looked dead straight at her and asked if she wanted to come up.
‘‘By the end of it, the whole stadium was chanting her name, and we were being asked for photos by other fans at the end of the show as we walked out. It was incredible.’’
It’s a big effort to go to a show in Wellington from Palmerston North and for the Guerins, it was a big group of them in tow.
Her mum Amy, sister Livvy, four of her cousins, her grandmother, and some aunties and uncles all trekked down to the capital to see the British pop sensation.
The tickets were a gift from her grandmother and had been planned for a while in advance.
For Pippa, it was her very first experience seeing an international act perform and she said it was something she will remember for a long time.
‘‘I was really nervous when I got up on stage, and I’m really glad I remembered most of the words. But he was really kind to me and kissed me on the forehead at the end.
‘‘It was very strange but amazing seeing thousands of people looking back at you.’’
Pippa went on to say that the second highlight of the show was seeing her favourite song Photograph, from Sheeran’s Divide album performed live.
Sheeran has brought fans on stage before, including at a small New York gig back in 2021 and at a gig in Austin, Texas, in 2015, when a fan used his stage to propose to his fiancée in front of the crowd.
He also has a habit of surprising his fans, such as randomly appearing at a Wairarapa pub or making cameos at gigs from Shaun Mendes to Luke Combs.
Sheeran continues his Mathematics tour at Eden Park in Auckland on February 10.
His Sky Stadium gig was set to break records with an expected crowd of 48,000, making it the facility’s largest single day event. Of those attending Thursday’s soldout concert, organisers said just over a third of the ticket holders were from outside the region.
Ahead of the concert, Sheeran had been staying incognito near Wellington with his family, and said he ‘‘loves living’’ in the capital.
Sheeran wouldn’t share details of his whereabouts, but said his wife and two children had been recovering from jet lag about two hours out of the city.
He told reporters he had introduced his children, daughters Lyra Antarctica and Jupiter, to New Zealand as it was their first time here. They had watched the first 20 minutes of The Hobbit and seen kiwi birds at the zoo.