Last night at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, Grammy-nominated singer Ed Sheeran performed a night of covers, mash-ups, and the unreleased song "Forever," kicking off the night with "I'm a Mess," the first of multiple tunes detailing heartache.
Throughout the British singer's show, 14 video screens projected images, music videos and footage of Sheeran. "Photograph" was accompanied by a dancing cartoon couple who quickly turned into static lines to watercolor images while "Lego" was appropriately accompanied by animated blocks.
Since his 2011 debut album, Sheeran has made a name for performers who rely on just their vocals, a guitar and loop pedal, referring to himself as a "singer with a flow." He used the live setting to jump into hip-hop covers, mashing up Chris Brown's "Loyal" and Blackstreet's "No Diggity," soon reverting back to his own mash-ups of "Don't" and "Nina." The encore brought more mash-ups integrating Iggy Azalea's "Fancy," with 50 Cent's "In Da Club" and "You Need Me, I Don't Need You."
Although Sheeran performed by his lonesome, his foot pedal created voice and guitar loops to create layers of sound throughout the Queens venue. The lack of band allowed fans to project their screams louder and louder with each passing song, even harmonizing certain parts. He continued to take on classic R&B songs with renditions of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition," Nina Simone's "Feeling Good" and Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine," notes The New York Daily News. The show came to a close as Sheeran ended with "Sing," while displaying pictures of the fans across all 14 rectangular background screens.
"Sometimes I feel like this isn't my life at all, that I'm just living someone else's life vicariously," Sheeran told Rolling Stone. "I know that at some point, my career is not gonna have the same trajectory it has now. But by the time I have kids, I can always be like, 'Look, I met this person, and I partied with this person. And I had a f*cking wicked time.'"
