A front row experience of Ed Sheeran's songs and stories
MANILA, Philippines — Sheerios, including yours truly, felt nostalgic while singing Ed Sheeran songs during his Mathematics Tour last March 9 at the SMDC Festival Grounds in Parañaque.
The award-winning singer-songwriter last visited the country in 2015 at the Mall of Asia Arena. This year, he opened his concert with a dramatic entrance on his revolving stage while singing Tides.
“It’s been seven years since I have been here. I’m so excited to be back,” Sheeran said before playing his song I’m a Mess.
Sheeran also got candid on the real story behind his first solo hit single, The A Team, with his Pinoy fans.
“I remember coming here in 2015. I think of the gig as the most crazy fun gig that I ever had. This song opened up the doors for me around the world. I have played this song to rooms with no one, and now I get to play this song every weekend to lots of people,” Sheeran shared.
Fans got excited when Sheeran shared the stage with Ben&Ben twins, Miguel Benjamin and Paolo Benjamin Guico, as they performed the band’s Original Pilipino Music (OPM) song, Maybe the Night.
“I really, really love coming back to Manila, Philippines. What I love doing is discovering local music which is a massive thing for you, guys. I just love hearing new stuff. I heard this band, Ben&Ben, and I asked them if they would mind coming on stage to sing this song with me,” Sheeran said on stage as he introduced the Guico twins.
In a Facebook post afterwards, he would further describe Ben&Ben as “bloody brilliant.”
In reaction, the band gushed on social media, “Grabe, we still can’t believe it. Para kaming nasa panaginip. We’re so grateful. We’re extremely happy. Sobrang kinikilig pa rin kami hanggang ngayon.”
“To share the stage with such a genuine and brilliant artist is a great honor and more than that, to have conversations with this very same person is beyond our wildest dreams,” they further said.
Going back to his concert, Sheeran serenaded us with almost everything in his Mathematics Album, including Blow, Shivers, Castle on the Hill, Don’t, Lego House, Eyes Closed, Give Me Love, Dive, American Town, Overpass Graffiti, Galway Girl, Thinking Out Loud, Sing, Photograph, Tenerife Sea, Happier, Perfect, Bloodstream, and Afterglow.
He even covered songs he wrote and collaborated with other artists such as Love Yourself, Beautiful People, South of the Border, and I Don’t Care.
Sheeran ended his two-in-a-half concert with hits You Need Me, I Don’t Need You, Shape of You, and Bad Habits, treating his fans with fireworks to cap off his comeback concert.
Sheeran expressed gratitude to his fans as he promised to be back soon.
“I do not take this for granted. I really know that you could be doing anything on Saturday night, but you take time to sit in traffic to get all the way here, and sit in traffic to all the way back. People have flown in, live in hotels (as) not everyone is from Manila. I just wanna say thank you for taking your time to watch me play. I’m really, really glad to be back in the Philippines. I won’t leave it at seven years next time, I promise.”
No doubt that at some point of our lives, the English hitmaker’s songs made us alive and described some of our feelings in this lifetime — the highest and lowest points.
So, when Sheeran announced his tour stop in the Philippines in October last year, as a certified fan, together with my brother, I had to get the closest possible seat to see him and luckily, we did!
I can still clearly remember the first time I heard his first hit single, The A Team, in 2011 from his first album Plus, we were a bunch of grade schoolers from a sister-run school in Batangas, just jamming with a guitar during our lunch break. From there, I started listening all his songs on my MP3 player and the rest was history.
A lot of people would also relate to how Thinking Out Loud was a massive hit not just in the Philippines but around the world. All radio stations, establishments, karaoke sessions, restaurants name it — we all went insane with that song that people joked about being the country’s “national anthem” in 2014.
In the same year, when my cousin got married to her long-time high school boyfriend, I was LSS (last song syndrome) with their wedding same edit music, All of the Stars, the same soundtrack from book-turned-movie, The Fault in Our Stars. It might also be the day when I started believing in the greatest love that lasts.
His song Photograph, which was also released in 2014 from his album Multiply, reminds us of the people we’ve loved and lost and the moments we’ve shared with them that will remain forever in our memories.
From experiencing puppy love to being broken-hearted to relating to his famous line in Sheeran’s song Dive “Don’t call me baby, unless you mean it” after jumping to that no-label relationship.
Castle on the Hill was also a perfect description of life after you graduate from college and go on your separate ways with your friends, including people you grew up with in the province.
Up to this day since 2019, I haven’t played his song, Supermarket Flowers, which reminds me so much of my grandmother, Andrea, who died five years ago. The same song Sheeran wrote about his late maternal grandmother. Even though it was not part of his setlist in the concert, I hope one day, I will find the courage to play that song again and fill the void of losing the person who helped me who I am today.
Mulling over my sister’s big move to work and settle in the US in 2023, his song Curtains from his Subtract album best describes the moment I started coping with the idea of my sister being miles away from our family. Quoting from the song, “Tears dry and will leave no trace, and tomorrow’s another day.”
It’s safe to say that Sheeran is a huge part of my childhood, and up to this day, he, along with his brilliant music, continuously helps me get through this crazy thing called life. It was indeed a once-in-a-lifetime experience watching him live in the front row. Every song he played; it healed my inner child. I’ll be loving you til’ I’m 70, Ed.
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