Ed Sheeran<\/strong><\/p>\n Go Media Stadium, Auckland<\/strong><\/p>\n Friday, January 16th<\/strong><\/p>\n For how global his music has become, Ed Sheeran has yet to find a more suitable stage than that of the dusty corner pub. But when performing for tens of thousands is the norm, how does one still deliver that same struggling-artist authenticity?<\/span><\/p>\n The solution is simple: take a gift hat\u2019s been with you from the very start and put it at the forefront of your world tour. In Sheeran\u2019s case, that gift is his mastery of loop pedals \u2014 the very inspiration behind the \u2018Loop Tour\u2019 that kickstarted in Auckland last night.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI found the loop pedal when I was 14 years old,\u201d he told the Go Media Stadium crowd early in the night. \u201cI saw an artist named Gary Dunne open for Nizlopi, I asked him to come to my house to teach me and I\u2019ve used it ever since.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n His performance began as intimately as possible on a small circular platform separate from the main stage, where he performed \u201cYou Need Me, I Don\u2019t Need You\u201d from his debut album, +.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \n Get your daily dose of everything happening in Australian\/New Zealand music and globally. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever opened a tour in New Zealand, this feels exciting,\u201d he told the crowd. \u201cI\u2019m gonna be playing a bunch of songs\u2026 some I haven\u2019t played in 10 years or so.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ed Sheeran Loop Tour 2026 concert at Go Media Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand on Friday 16th January 2026. As he blasted through the opener, two technical marvels quickly became apparent. Firstly, the mammoth screen at the main stage, reportedly the largest screen ever built in New Zealand, where, amongst other stunning visuals supporting each song, a gelatinous sea of bright pink particles sporting a scribbly play button bathed the display throughout the night, a soft tribute to Play<\/em>, his eighth studio album released last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The second engineering feat came as a surprise to all: a protruding metal bridge that extended to and from the main stage, stretched at minimum 50 metres over the crowd, meeting the artist at his raised platform.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m glad the bridge works,\u201d he laughed, having now walked to the other side. \u201cWasn\u2019t sure if it would work, but now seeing it work it\u2019s like, \u2018Alright, cool.’\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n From there, Sheeran began a marathon run of reconstructing old and new hits rom scratch, including \u201cSapphire\u201d from his latest album, \u201cCastle on the Hill\u201d from \u00f7<\/em>, and his breakout 2011 hit \u201cThe A Team\u201d, the latter being \u201cthe one song I wanted people to know because I didn\u2019t know I\u2019d still be playing 15 years later with fireworks coming out of the stage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Following \u201cShivers\u201d, Sheeran\u2019s preferred song \u201cto show the use of the loop pedal,\u201d the largest open mic night of his career truly took shape as he began playing songs requested by fans via QR code mere minutes before picking up his guitar.<\/span><\/p>\n Ed Sheeran Loop Tour 2026 concert at Go Media Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand on Friday 16th January 2026. \u201cThis is the first time I\u2019ve been nervous in a long time,\u201d he shared, \u201cI want to make each show original, mistakes happen\u2026 I\u2019ve written around 250 songs and actively perform about 30 of them.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He strummed through deep cuts like \u201cSofa\u201d and \u201cLittle Bird\u201d, which he wrote after his girlfriend\u2019s chicken died \u201cand I felt dreadful,\u201d as well as the emotionally raw songs \u201cTenerife Sea\u201d, \u201cGive Me Love\u201d, and his tribute to his late grandmother, \u201cSupermarket Flowers\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n Solely captivating the crowd alone to this point, Sheeran needed the support of Irish folk band Beoga to accomplish more complex sounds for songs like \u201cI Don\u2019t Care\u201d, \u201cOld Phone\u201d, and \u201cHeaven\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWherever you go in the world, there\u2019s always one Irish person who loses their shit to this,\u201d he laughed before they broke into the Ireland-inspired and utterly infectious \u201cGalway Girl\u201d and \u201cNancy Mulligan\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n @Ed Sheeran new loop tour stage in Auckland New Zealand #edsheeran<\/a> #auckland<\/a> #newzealand<\/a> <\/p>\n \u266c original sound \u2013 allaccessss<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n Sheeran often mirrored pub singalongs on a larger scale by harmonising separate halves of the crowd, convincing everyone \u2014 including patrolling police \u2014 to jump during \u201cCelestial\u201d, and, in his own words, outpace Coldplay\u2019s light-up bracelets by having fans flash their phone lights in time with the chorus to \u201cCamera\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In true small gig fashion, Sheeran also broke into a medley of covers, mainly songs he wrote for other artists, including Benny Blanco, Halsey and Khalid\u2019s \u201cEastside\u201d, Anne-Marie\u2019s \u201c2002\u201d, One Direction\u2019s \u201cLittle Things\u201d, and Justin Bieber\u2019s \u201cLove Yourself\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Between aural love letters like \u201cThinking Out Loud\u201d and \u201cPerfect\u201d, he admitted his own affinity for New Zealand by not only playing \u201cI See Fire\u201d, a song he made here for 2013\u2019s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug<\/em>, but by also revisiting Aotearoa less than two years later \u2014 something very few international acts do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not kidding when I say this, if I didn\u2019t meet my wife in my hometown and live 10 minutes from my parents, I would live in New Zealand,\u201d he admitted to loud approval.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After visually stunning, thunderous performances of \u201cSymmetry\u201d and \u201cBloodstream\u201d, Sheeran pulled a fake-out closing with \u201cAfterglow\u201d and returned for a rousing encore: \u201cShape of You\u201d, \u201cAzizam\u201d, and \u201cBad Habits\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n H finished by wishing Auckland goodnight, pledging to come back both the following night and in the coming years. <\/span><\/p>\n Sheeran has truly found his stride by embracing his humble roots \u2014 covers, song requests, and freestyle sampling \u2013 and instilling them into his existing formula. On this tour, he\u2019s the closest to his early self as he has been in a long time \u2014 and as a result, fans have never felt closer to him.<\/span><\/p>\n Check out the remaining tour dates on Sheeran\u2019s Australia and New Zealand tour here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nLove Music?<\/h2>\n
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Photo: Tom Grut \/ Photosport<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
Photo: Tom Grut \/ Photosport<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n