Taylor Swift has had her fair share of surprises during her Eras Tour, and kept them rolling during her first show at London’s Wembley Stadium today with a surprise appearance from Ed Sheeran for a medley of their collaborations.
The two performed their duets “Everything Has Changed” and “End Game” during the surprise song section of the first of five London shows. About halfway through “Everything,” included on her 2012 album “Red,” Sheeran rose up from the back of the stage and joined Swift for the song before transitioning to “End Game,” the duet from 2017’s “Reputation.” The pair ended with a rendition of Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” before they hugged and Swift celebrated their friendship.
“This is one of my best friends in the world to the point where I feel like he’s a second brother of mine,” said Swift, arm-in-arm with Sheeran. “We toured together on the Red Tour. Every time I am doing the ‘Red’ part of this show, I think about the memories that we’ve made. And now he is someone who plays Wembley like, every week. This is like, regular for him. And he works so hard, and he’s on tour right now and he’s probably so tired. But he wanted to come and play for you and do this for all of us so give it up for Ed Sheeran.
Of course, Swift and Sheeran have been longtime friends and collaborators. In the past, Sheeran opened for Swift on her Red Tour, and the two have publicly supported one another on social media and during award shows. Their last collaboration, “The Joker and the Queen,” came out in 2021.
Swift is currently wrapping the final European leg of her Eras Tour, with four subsequent dates planned through Aug. 20. During the shows, she’s featuring opening act Paramore as well as more emerging female musicians including Sofia Isella, Holly Humberstone, Suki Waterhouse, Maisie Peters and Raye.
The Eras Tour kicked off in March 2023 at Glendale, AZ’s State Farm Stadium. In the time since, she’s spent essentially two years traversing the globe to bring her show to the masses, from Japan and South America to Australia and Europe. In addition to Sheeran, Swift has brought out a handful of surprise guests during shows including Haim, Ice Spice, Aaron Dessner and Gracie Abrams.
Her show at Wembley Stadium comes just a week after a terroristic threat forced the cancellation of her three shows in Vienna. Local police apprehended three suspects with connections to ISIS who were allegedly planning to attack concertgoers outside of the venue. In the hours that followed the arrests, concert promoter Barracuda Music announced that the three shows would not proceed to protect the safety of potential attendees.