I wasn’t planning to write about this one but that would be selfish of me right…
Firstly, seeing the most popular and cutest Ginger in the world was a pipe dream because the Johannesburg tickets sold out within hours of going on sale. I made peace with not seeing him but the big boss at work ran a competition; asked a few questions and then offered a booster entry if you recorded a video of yourself doing something with Ed Sheeran’s songs. I choose to sing and well, I won! The video is on my Insta stories here.
The 23rd March couldn’t have quicker. There were no reports of Ed Sheeran arriving in South Africa. Nonetheless, my sister and I made sure we were prepared this time, considering that the last time we were at the FNB stadium we saw Beyoncé performing live at the Global Citizen; we opted for the Park n Ride and arrived just in time for the performances.
Getting into the stadium was not easy, there were more security checks than there were at the Global Citizen. After about six security checks, we were in. We spent an hour looking for our entrance gate, the entrance number on the ticket was apparently incorrect. Even though it was printed on the ticket… And then shock of our lives, we had to stand in a loooooooooooong cue to get bands to enter into the arena. We heard Shekinah perform from the cue. I literally almost cried hearing my favorite songs back to back and not being able to see her perform the songs live.
When we finally got the bands, Shekinah said thank you and left the stage. Sigh!
As per usual we made a new artist discovery on the night; an English singer and songwriter; The Passenger. He was a pleasant discovery. I tried to get the lyrics to his songs on the night but that didn’t happen as planned. His coming back to SA soon, so maybe we’ll get it right then. Nonetheless, I enjoyed his performance. He soothed the Shekinah blues away.
Then came the man of the moment; Ed Sheeran. The first thing I appreciated was the background visuals. The background changed every time he changed his guitar (I was told he changes guitars because he sets them on a specific tune them before he performs, now you know). I thought I was a fan until this night. You could separate the fans from the super fans; the super fans knew all the songs word for word. The fans, like me, knew the popular songs word for word.
The crowd pleasers included; Perfect, Castle on the Hills, Shape of You and You Need Me I Don’t Need You just to name a few. And the most popular song of the night; Thinking Out Loud. The last surprise was when Ed stepped off the stage and we did the usual “we want more”; he came back wearing a Springboks jersey to perform the last song. That was a lovely surprise.
And just like that, the night was done. The concert actually finished on time, at 10pm on the dot!
The stadium cleared out quickly and we didn’t have to stress about waiting in a long cue to get out of the stadium. We hopped into the bus and we were home around midnight.
Reminiscing on the video’s and photo’s the next day, it was definitely one of the greatest concerts I’ve attended. Ed melted our hearts, even more, when he attended the Proteas cricket match at Wanderers Stadium the next day. Word has it, he wore the Proteas skirt and the Bafana Bafana shirt on Sunday.
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