Ed Sheeran had a surprise in store for fans attending his concert in Romania on Saturday (24 August), as he invited a Hollywood star to join him onstage.
The British singer-songwriter was accompanied by Thor actor Chris Hemsworth, who played the drums while Sheeran sang his hit single “Thinking Out Loud” at the National Arena in Bucharest.
The stunt was carried out in front of nearly 70,000 fans as part of the Australian actor’s documentary series, Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, in which he takes on various challeneges to explore issues people face such as pain, fear and social connection.
His performance with Sheeran was filmed for an episode examining the cognitive health benefits of learning an instrument, with a wider theme about the limits of the human body.
“Got @ChrisHemsworth to learn drums for my stadium show, find out why on his show Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, season two coming 2025 to Disney Plus,” Sheeran wrote in an Instagram post, alongside a photo of him onstage with the actor.
He also complimented the Avengers star on his drumming skills: “He was wonderful!! I think he deserves a permanent spot in the band.”
In the first season of Limitless,Hemsworth revealed that he had received a “shocking” health warning after undergoing a DNA test.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Hemsworth recalled the moment he was given the news that doctors had found two copies of the gene APOE4, which has been linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
“They took all my bloodwork and did a bunch of tests and the plan was to on-camera tell me all the results and then talk about how you can improve this and that,” he said.
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“And Peter Attia, who is the longevity doctor in that episode, and overseeing a lot of the show, called [show creator] Darren [Aronofsky] and said, ‘I don’t want to tell him this on camera. We need to have an off-side conversation and see if he even wants this to be in the show.’
“It was pretty shocking because he called me up and he told me.”
Hemsworth explained that he had certainly not expected to receive such “intense” news as the show was originally intended to be a “fun” way of exploring “longevity”.
However, he said: “It was a really good catalyst to dive into everything I needed to be doing in either the prevention front or the management front.
“There was an intensity to navigating it. Most of us, we like to avoid speaking about death in the hope that we’ll somehow avoid it.”
Sheeran’s Mathematics tour will continue with forthcoming shows in Bulgaria, Cyprus and Brazil taking place until 7 September. He will then have a break until 2025, when he heads back out on the road for stadium and arena shows around Europe between May to September.
Last week, Sheeran joined friend and fellow pop star Taylor Swift onstage at Wembley Stadium for one of the last UK shows of her record-breaking Eras Tour.