British pop star Ed Sheeran has announced the first leg of his upcoming ‘+ – = / x’ tour with dates starting from April to September next year. Cities include much of the UK and Europe, but we can probably expect more to be added in time.

Says Sheeran,

“I’m going back on tour next year, the first leg is on sale Saturday 25th September. Check my website for on sale times & more info. You will need an account with one of the official ticket vendors so please sign up in advance x http://edsheeran.com” 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CT6eCcogNLD/?utm_medium=copy_link

The tour announcement comes ahead of the release of his forthcoming 4th studio album ‘=‘, Ed Sheeran – which comes out next month. The music sensation recently released three songs – all of which have been doing well on streaming platforms worldwide. ‘Bad Habits’ has clocked in over 439 million streams on Spotify, while ‘Visiting Hours’, released just last month, has charted 34 million streams. The latest bop ‘Shivers’, released just last week, has had 22 million streams and counting.

Also read: Ed Sheeran has released a ‘Shiveringly’ infectious single – and we can’t stop playing it!

After a hiatus of almost two years, the recent promo of his upcoming album as well as regular appearances have indeed given fans something to get excited and be stoked about.

His latest online session came in the form of an Instagram live session two days ago as a thank you to listeners for their reaction to ‘Shivers’. The 23-minute session saw around 36k people tune in to listen to him as he sang acoustic versions of ‘Shivers’, ‘Beautiful People’, ‘Hearts Don’t Break Around Here’, ‘Tenerife Sea’, and ‘Sunburn’.

Watch the stream below.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CT2QYBSFtVk/?utm_medium=copy_link

With a plethora of media interviews, television appearances, live shows and online sessions, it came as no surprise that a tour announcement was next.

While it may only be just the first leg announced for now, Sheeran’s past tours have included up to 14 legs and between 180-250 shows each time across multiple continents. In addition, Sheeran has mentioned that this announcement is the start of the next three years of his life and that he is excited to be back at it. We assume that we can only wait patiently for Asia to be added to the mix soon. Still, this looks to be very exciting news and we can hardly wait!

In a radio interview with Capital FM in the UK, Sheeran also mentions ending this tour in churches, calling it the ‘ever-decreasing’ tour. It looks like we may be getting some big shows, followed by more big ones, then some smaller intimate ones, and then more smaller ones towards the end. How Perfect is that…

“My plan for this tour is for it to be the ‘ever-decreasing’ tour. I really want to end like in churches in 4-5 years time. So do the big shows. Then go into America and do the big shows. And then come back and do some smaller’ish shows. And then do the same, and then some smaller’ish shows, and so it’s be ever-decreasing.”

For those eagle-eyed fans, you may also have noticed the long name in his tour, +-=÷x, looking more like a mathematical equation than a tour name. Plus ‘+’, Multiply ‘x’, Divide ‘÷’

are albums that are already out, while Equals ‘=’ comes out next month. What about Subtract/Minus ‘-’? When will it be released and will it be before the new tour commences next year?

In another interview published in late June with The Today Show in Australia, Sheeran confirmed that his upcoming albums will be called ‘=’ and ‘-’, and that both will be out within the next 18 months. I guess time will tell regarding the second one.

What are your thoughts?

Ed Sheeran’s 4th studio album ‘=’ will be released on October 29. Pre-save or pre-order it here.