English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is currently on his + – = ÷ x Asia tour and his most recent stop was Singapore. While many enjoyed the concert, without a doubt, the highlight of the whole event would be his performance with Singaporean singer JJ Lin (林俊傑)!
It was no secret that JJ Lin had been invited to be a guest performer singer for the + – = ÷ x concert. However, the duo caught everyone off-guard when Ed Sheeran sang in Mandarin too, all thanks to JJ Lin!
Fans got quite the treat when JJ Lin appeared onstage alongside Ed Sheeran as a special guest. The two singers had apparently planned to perform JJ Lin’s hit song “Twilight (不為誰而作的歌)”, with JJ singing while Ed played the guitar. But, the duo surprised fans when Ed stepped up to the mike and took over singing the song from JJ, in Mandarin.
Ed later admitted this had been a last minute addition to their plan. “Me and the band had learnt one of his biggest hits, ‘Twilight’, for the show, but because it was entirely in Mandarin, I felt like I didn’t want to mess it up, or be disrespectful by by getting it wrong so the original plan was for us to play and JJ to sing,” he stated in his Instagram post. “10 minutes before I went on, JJ said he would sit and teach me some of the Mandarin and it was so fun to do live.”
As seen in his behind-the-scenes video, JJ had proposed Ed sing a few words in Mandarin, and emboldened by JJ’s praise, Ed opted to do the whole chorus in the end. He did his best to practice the song when he could, even getting a refresher two songs before the performance. Well, his efforts all paid off as he performed the part beautifully.
JJ Lin too was psyched to have Ed Sheeran singing his song and dedicated a part of it to sing happy birthday to Ed as it was the eve of his special day. Ed later deemed the show as his favourite show of the year so far, promising it would not be last time he would perform in Mandarin.
We certainly look forward to seeing Ed Sheeran dazzle us in Mandarin in the future, which might be sooner than expected. After all he’ll be performing in Malaysia on 24th February and perhaps he’ll grace us with another Mandarin song! Either way, we look forwards to seeing him here soon.
Check out his video here:
Source: Instagram
