Ed Sheeran has played gigs in the largest venues all over the world, collaborated with major pop and hip-hop stars (Justin Biebrer, Taylor Swift, Cardi B, Stormzy) and had his songs streamed tens of billions of times.
But on Sunday night (July 13) during the final show of his three-night run at Suffolk’s Portman Road stadium — home of his beloved Ipswich Town FC football club — Sheeran truly took it back to the start when he shared the stage with the singer who made him want to do this all in the first place: James Blunt.
“I rarely get nervous at gigs, I do this so often. I’m very nervous to sing this, because I’ve never sung this with him and this really is a dream come true,” Sheeran told the crowd as he announced Blunt. The two then launched into a duet on Blunt’s sentimental 2004 hit “Goodbye My Lover,” with Blunt taking the lead on vocal and playing keyboards as Sheeran strummed an acoustic guitar. “I’m quite emotional after that actually. That is top three favorite moment on stage ever. Ever,” Sheeran said afterwards.
Sheeran has long spoken of the huge impact Blunt’s music had on his own desire to write and perform songs and in an accompanying note on the video he wrote, “I saw @jamesblunt when I was 13 opening for @eltonjohn at Portman Road. I bought his album that day, then got obsessed. My dad took me to Cambridge junction to see him months after, and he became my favourite singer songwriter. His songs moulded me, his performing inspired me. I wanted to be him.”
He added, “I wanted to be him so much that I signed to the same management as him. I wanted to be him so much I signed to the same record label as him. I sometimes have to remind myself how much he means and meant to me, because we’ve been mates for well over a decade now. I’m godfather to his son. He’s one of my close mates.”
Sheeran said that he sometimes forgets he was once a 13-year-old boy who got obsessed with Blunt, covered his songs at a school talent show, went to a number of the fellow singer-songwriter’s gigs and has transformed from being just a fan to a both a fan and a friend, which is “super weird” when he thinks about it.
“I asked him to do the final night at ipswich because of that gig 21 years ago where I saw him at the same venue,” Sheeran explained. “And I asked him to sing my favourite songs of his tonight, because he, and the song, mean so much to me. Thank you James for coming today. I know you finished your South American tour two days ago, and you should be resting, but you flew to ipswich to sing with me. And it meant the world.”
The “Bad Habits” ended his note with a reversal of the old saw about meeting your heroes. “Don’t meet your hero’s, unless your hero’s are James Blunt,” Sheeran wrote. “Love you mate.”
It was a magical weekend for Sheeran all around, as he also got to collaborate with another one of his formative influences, British boy band Westlife, who joined him on night one for a joint performance of their 1999 hit single “Flying Without Wings” during the run that included support from Myles Smith, Tori Kelly, Busted, Skye Newman, Dylan and Maisie Peters.
Check out footage of the performance and Sheeran’s note below.
