Breakthrough Story, Technical Brilliance — Ed Sheeran's Mumbai Concert One For The Ages

My taxi driver was a little confused as we pulled up to the entrance to Mahalaxmi Racecourse. It was far more crowded than what he was used to on a Saturday afternoon, and this prompted him to ask, “Yahan kuch programme ho raha hai kya? (Is there any show going on here?)" What followed was an experience of a lifetime. About six hours later my legs didn't work like they used to before, but it was worth it.

Ed Sheeran's visit to India and Mumbai was already a far cry from his last trip back in 2015. In the time since he last performed, his fame, which had reached the precipice of stardom at the early age of 25, has skyrocketed to super-stardom. The British star is acclaimed by peers, fans as well as yesteryear greats as one of the foremost singer-songwriters of his generation, but his origins shine through when he takes the stage.

Ed Sheeran is the consummate performer. From the time he took the stage at 7:30 pm to his farewell more than two-and-a-half breathless hours later, he held the crowd, that was estimated to have crossed 50,000, captivated. And while everyone in the audience had a blast, only those familiar with music grammar truly understood what the former busker had done.

While Sheeran had a band to support him on some numbers, most of his songs were performed using what is called a loop machine. For the layman, it allows a musician to record snippets of sound and then layer it onto other sounds. At the start of his performance, Sheeran clarified that everything that would be played that evening was live – a unique rendition that would only be performed once. That’s because all the loops he created – layering sounds not once or twice, but in some cases, six, seven and eight times – were deleted after the song was performed.

The Shape of You singer-songwriter didn't just have one loop machine. His stage was a circular affair, with a ring on the circumference, which rotated so that he catered to every section of the audience. What’s more, there were microphones and loop machines positioned at four points on the circumference at the very least.

With almost inhuman precision, Sheeran performed one hit after another, guzzling water in the seconds between songs and using the crowd almost as much as he used his instruments. Not a beat was missed and you'd have to nitpick to find an off note.

Sheeran also brought in collaborators. A fiddler, who Sheeran introduced as Alisha accompanied his Galway Girl and Armaan Malik joined him in showing off the ‘Shahrukh pose’. The highlight was Diljit Dosanjh, whose hit song “Lover” drove the audience into a frenzy. It was almost unimaginable, but Sheeran seemed as comfortable as he had all night even singing in Punjabi.

Sheeran had an interesting story while introducing one of his first major hits, The A-Team. “I always thought that this was the only song that I had, that I would be a one-hit wonder and this would be the one song that people would be interested in and I close my eyes and remember singing it in empty rooms and if people were in it, they didn’t want to hear it, and when I open my eyes I get to see the biggest crowd that I’ve ever played to in India.”

I, for one, got my money’s worth. Even the bitter return to reality as I joined thousands of people making their way to the exits to find chock-a-block traffic couldn’t detract from what I will always remember as the experience of a lifetime.