Ed Sheeran brought both solid songs and plenty of spectacle to his Saturday night (June 20) headlining show at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium. Spearheading his Loop Tour, the solo stadium show featured Sheeran building each song live using a loop pedal, highlighting both Sheeran’s energetic, entertaining showmanship and musical precision. A folk-pop star known for writing his own material, the approach also allowed him to give fans a glimpse into the process of how he constructs his slate of hits.
Instead of launching the show from the main stage, he walked through the crowd, shaking hands with audience members before holding court at a smaller b-stage in the middle of the stadium. He launched into “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You” and “Sapphire.” Though he was commandeering the show solo, the set also offered plenty of visual extravaganza. By the second song, he had fireworks brushing the sky in shades of pink and dark blue, while fiery pyros were utilized throughout the evening. A retractable bridge that stretched over the audience allowed Sheeran to move back and forth from the main stage to the smaller b-stage multiple times throughout the show.
He sailed through a setlist that included over 30 songs, including renditions of “Shape of You,” “Thinking Out Loud,” “Perfect” and “The A Team,” but also left room for improvisation, allowing fans to text in song requests, and obliging on songs such as “Dive” and “A Little More.”
During the set, Sheeran called Nashville “my favorite city in America,” and talked about several previous times he’s played Music City venues including Nissan Stadium and the Ryman Auditorium, and even lived in Nashville for brief stretches of time over the past decade or so. His Nashville ties include working with artists over the years, ranging from Luke Combs and Megan Moroney to Taylor Swift, and he’s regularly popped up at shows in more intimate Nashville venues, including The Bluebird Cafe, Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, and even playing a show with Noah Kahan at Santa’s Pub just last year.
His show featured everything from guest artists, to quiet moments of reflection, love-struck ballads and songs with infectious grooves that got fans jumping, cheering, dancing and singing loudly along. Below, Billboard highlights five best moments from Sheeran’s Nissan Stadium show.
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The Whole Place Sparkles
During his performance of “Camera,” Sheeran requested something special of the crowd. When he sang the lyric, “I don’t need a camera to capture this moment,” he asked the entire crowd to simultaneously take a photo on their cell phones, using flash. The effect of tens of thousands of fans taking photos at once created an ongoing shimmering effect, creating a special moment for the audience.
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A Fiery Zenith
Throughout his set, Sheeran’s show was punctuated by pyro, fireworks, lights and images and videos on the screen. But that all built to a powerful, dynamic zenith on his final two (non-encore) songs, “Bloodstream” and “I See Fire.” As he roared to the two dramatic songs, building the intensity with each new looped layer of vocals and rhythms, the stage lit up with red lights, while pillars of flames shot into the sky from each corner of the stadium as well as from the main stage, and video images of molten lava and burning buildings only heightened the songs’ drama.
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Unexpected Collaboration
Midway through his set, Sheeran surprised the audience by welcoming country duo Dan + Shay to the stage, eliciting cheers and screams from the crowd.
“I love this so much. We have such a deep history of just hanging,” Sheeran said of his friendship with the duo, recalling that he first forged a friendship with Dan + Shay’s Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney when Sheeran was living in Nashville over a decade ago.
Smyers also greeted the crowd, calling Sheeran “one of the greatest singer-songwriters in the entire world,” before they launched into Dan + Shay’s Grammy-winning hit “Tequila.”
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An Irish Folk Collab
Dan + Shay weren’t the only collaborators Sheeran welcomed during his headlining show. Earlier in the evening, he welcomed Irish folk group Beoga to join him on several songs.
“These guys are playing a gig in Nashville on Monday, at The Basement. We are going to play a song that we wrote the first day of meeting,” Sheeran said, recalling a writing session that had in 2016.
From there, the group went on to play and collab on several songs, including “Galway Girl” and “Nancy Mulligan.” Slices of fiddle and jangly guitar rhythms got the crowdmembers on their feet and singing along mightily with the two fan-favorite collabs.
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A Fan Request Sparks Heartfelt Onstage Moment
As part of his Loop Tour, Sheeran allowed fans to request songs that he would incorporate into his set each night. One of the top-requested songs was the tear-jerker “Supermarket Flowers,” a song Sheeran featured on his album ÷ and wrote as a tribute to his late grandmother. The crowd cheered when he launched into the song and quickly began singing along to lyrics such as, “A heart that’s broke is a heart that’s been loved.” Sheeran noted that the song is aways a top fan request, saying, “I should probably just add it to the setlist.”