You can do a lot with just a guitar and a loop pedal – something Ed Sheeran has certainly fine-tuned over the years.
The British singer has been performing in the UAE for a decade, taking to the stage at increasingly larger venues. He has progressed from amphitheatres and arenas to stadiums, and will headlining Saturday's inaugural Off Limits music festival – all while maintaining a solo stage presence occasionally enhanced by rock star pyrotechnics.
If this all seemed like a smooth progression, it’s because Sheeran – renowned for his casual approach to stardom – viewed his gigs in the UAE as being akin to a holiday with friends.
“It is someone else's stress, I just get up and play,” he told The National in 2017. “I have three of my best mates on tour and I dip in for the concert. I play for two hours a day and other than that I am off living and having fun with them. Today I spent the whole day with them doing stuff and then I am nipping in and doing a gig.”
Sheeran made his UAE debut in 2015. Already flush with success from his first two albums + (2011) and x (2014), he serenaded a sold-out crowd at Dubai Media City Amphitheatre with heartfelt renditions of hits The A Team and Thinking Out Loud.
As our review shows, Sheeran's strength lies in his ability to make large arenas feel intimate due to the personal nature of his music.
“His songs are deeply grounded in open, earnest diary scraps – the girlfriend who made him watch Shrek 12 times in Wake Me Up, for instance – and it's hard not to feel they, and he, are genuine, offering an antidote to the auto-tuned pop factory dominating contemporary charts,” it says. “When he hits a bum chord in Take It Back, it actually makes me like him more.”
Buoyed by the positive reception, Sheeran returned two years later to conclude another world tour at the Autism Rocks Arena in 2017. The gig was initially in doubt due to a bicycle accident Sheeran suffered weeks earlier. But there was nothing to fear, with Sheeran delivering a spirited two-hour set featuring his blockbuster single Shape of You.
“There was plenty of mutual appreciation in the air,” our review says. “Sheeran referenced his recent injury scare, saying he ‘didn’t expect to be on stage’ but was very happy to be there – a comment that drew energetic applause. He later added that he was ‘loving the energy’ of the Dubai crowd.”
With that gig reportedly selling out within a day, it set the scene for one of the UAE’s biggest concerts when about 69,000 people turned up for Sheeran’s two sold-out shows at the Sevens Stadium in 2024.
The National visited the venue days earlier to witness the mammoth preparations for the twin dates, which featured a 360-degree revolving stage surrounded by six 30-metre-tall masts, built from 7.5 tonnes of truss. These supported a network of cables capable of holding up to 55 tonnes of suspended equipment, including lights, speakers and screens.
It was lot of gear for someone who continues to perform solo on stage – but by that point, Sheeran was every bit the showman, delivering an epic two-and-a-half-hour set of 26 songs, augmented by pyrotechnics, screen graphics and a concluding firework display. Yet these thrilling gimmicks did not take away from what remains a serious musician at the peak of his craft.
“Sheeran's charm on stage is also thanks to his signature live looping. Instead of a band, he creates all of the sounds on stage, deftly layering them on top of each other using a looper,” our 2024 report says. “This is why, even when there seems to be a lot going on – with the rotating platform and the overhead screen – the stage remains aptly bare, drawing the audience’s focus back to him.”
With his latest Abu Dhabi performance coming off the back of new single Azizam and a surprise Coachella festival appearance, Sheeran will once again show how a guitar and loop pedal can still conjure both spectacle and intimacy.
