Ed Sheeran is one megastar that loves his fans! Sheeran’s fans got a real treat on April 4, 2025, when he casually dropped by King’s Cross in London for a surprise free concert. How many other stars at Sheeran’s level in the industry regularly do stuff like this? The one-man popup concert had a warm, community vibe as the lucky commuters sang back the words to Sheeran. The audience was completely stoked, and clearly so was Sheeran as he wore that famous boyish grin throughout much of the concert.
Sheeran performed a six-song set, featuring the fan favorites “Castle on the Hill”, “Shivers”, “Perfect”, “Shape of You” and “Bad Habits”. He closed the set with his feel-good single “Azizam”, which he released the day of the surprise concert. Sheeran was in fantastic form vocally – here’s one pop star who doesn’t need any Auto-Tune. The Music Man was also impressed yet again by the English hitmaker’s ability to layer so many musical parts together while also nailing the vocals.
Fan channel Ed Sheeran on Tour uploaded the popup show the day after the concert. Viewers showed their appreciation for the concert with comments such as “Ed does stuff that everyone swears they’d do if they were famous. Pop up on streets or at bar/club gigs, etc. He’s years into megastardom, and still doing this stuff. Because he loves playing for people. That’s awesome” and “A genius songwriter and musician. Amazing how he’s doing all that live, without help.”
Sheeran has made somewhat of a habit of surprise free performances over the years. He made one such memorable street performance in New York City in April 2023, one day after he won his copyright trial in the city relating to his song “Thinking Out Loud” and Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.” In this live cut, he played a completely unplugged acoustic rendition of his ballad “Boat,” showing off an impressive ability to project his vocals without amplification.
Sheeran released “Azizam” on April 3, 2025, as the first single from his forthcoming eighth studio album Play, which will drop on September 12. Sheeran co-wrote and co-produced the song with Ilya Salmanzadeh, Johnny McDaid, and Savan Kotecha. The Music Man readers might be interested to hear that azizam is a Persian word that means “my beloved,” and that the lyrics address Sheeran’s relationship with his wife. “Azizam” features Iranian and Indian musicians playing traditional instruments. Sheeran said he penned the tune after the suggestion from his Iranian-born co-writer Salmanzadeh that they try to write a song based around the musical heritage of his country.