Ed Sheeran wows at opening Wembley Stadium show

“My name is Ed, my job for the next few hours is to entertain you and your job is to be entertained”

One man, a loop pedal and a few guitars is all it took to get the 90,000 strong crowd at London’s Wembley Stadium on their feet last night. 

The opening show of Ed Sheeran’s sold-out three-night stint at the legendary venue, saw the singer-songwriter perform a string of hits, old and new, and was the platform for a duet to end all duets.

Kicking off with x album track I’m a Mess, Ed christened the stage with his very own “Hello Wembley!” before diving into into audience favourites Lego House and Don’t.

And entertain us you did Ed #EdAtWembley

A video posted by Official Charts (@officialcharts) on Jul 10, 2015 at 5:09pm PDT

Ten songs in, and after a stirring blend of Nina Simone’s Feeling Good with I See Fire, Ed announced there was a special guest heading to the stage, and as far as special guests go, they don’t get much more impressive than Sir Elton John.

The pair performed a crowd-pleasing rendition of Elton and Kiki Dee’s 1976 duet Don’t Go Breaking My Heart before Elton provided an emotional piano backing to Ed's Afire Love – which the 24-year-old penned about his late grandfather.

So this PURE JOY happened @teddysphotos @eltonjohn #EdAtWembley

A video posted by Official Charts (@officialcharts) on Jul 10, 2015 at 5:17pm PDT

"A lot of people said to me, 'Have you achieved your dream now that you're playing Wembley?' and I said no, because Wembley never was my dream," Ed told the audience. "It was always too big to dream about, so now we're here it's a bit mental.”

But it’s no surprise the Suffolk-born star has become the first solo act to headline the prestigious Wembley stage. Famous worldwide - and with an Official Chart record to boot - his latest album x was not only the fastest and biggest selling album of last year, but returned to the Official Albums Chart top-spot on Friday, racking up a 13^th week at Number 1 a whole year after it’s release.

The career-spanning set closed with Ed’s most recent chart-topper Thinking Out Loud and his 2011 debut The A Team, before an encore of You Need Me, I Don’t Need You and Sing. Leaving the stage with the audience chanting the Sing hook, Ed ordered, "Never stop singing", and we didn’t, all the way home.

Setlist:

1. Im a Mess
2. Lego House
3. Drunk
4. Take it Back / Superstition / Ain't No Sunshine
5. One
6. Photograph
7. Bloodstream
8. Tenerife Sea
9. Don't / No Diggity / Nina
10. Feeling Good / I See Fire
11. Don't Go Breaking my Heart (with Elton John)
12. Afire Love (with Elton John)
13. Give Me Love
14. I Was Made to Love Her
15. Thinking Out Loud
16. The A Team
17. You Need Me, I Don't Need You
18. Sing