The ÷ Tour (pronounced the "Divide Tour") was the third world concert tour by English singer-songwriter

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran ( ; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

, in support of his third studio album, '' ÷'' (2017) (pronounced "divide"). Comprising 260 shows, it officially began on 16 March 2017, in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, Italy and ended on 26 August 2019, in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

, England. Ticket sales started on 2 February 2017.1 The tour set world records for the highest-grossing concert tour and the most tickets sold by a tour.

Development

On the morning of 26 January 2017, the European dates of the tour were announced through Sheeran's social networks. Hours later, through the same networks, the dates were announced for Latin America. Tickets for the tour sold out quickly, prompting new dates to be added in London, Turin and Santiago. On 13 February 2017 it was announced that he would be part of the line up for a week of gigs at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust taking place on 28 March 2017. On 22 February 2017, Sheeran announced that Anne-Marie and Ryan McMullan would be the opening acts for the European dates. On 8 March 2017, Sheeran announced the North American leg.

James Blunt James Blunt (born James Hillier Blount, 22 February 1974) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He is known for his songs "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover". As a British Army captain in the aftermath of the Kosovo War, Blunt ...

was announced as the opening act, except for Indianapolis and Cleveland, where the opener was

Joshua Radin Joshua Radin (born June 14, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter. He has recorded ten studio albums, and his songs have been used in a number of films and TV series. His most successful album, ''Simple Times'', was released in 2008. Beginning ...

. On 10 May 2017, Sheeran announced the Oceanian leg. The tour was originally slated to have seven shows, but demand was high, the leg became eighteen shows. On 8 June 2017, Sheeran announced the Asian leg of the tour, which was originally planned for October 2017 until November 2017. However, due to bone fractures in his arms from a bike accident, he had to postpone and cancel parts of the Asian leg. Rescheduled shows in Manila, Osaka, and Tokyo occurred in April 2018, but Taipei, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Jakarta were cancelled. Lauv served as the opening act in Asia in November. On 28 June 2017, Sheeran announced a stadium tour across Europe. After the initial announcement, tickets sold quickly, which prompted new dates in Cork, Dublin, Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle, London, Cardiff, Amsterdam, Paris, Gothenburg, Munich, Zürich, Vienna, and Warsaw. Anne-Marie returned as the opening act, while Jamie Lawson was added, and Beoga was added for Ireland. On 22 September 2017, Sheeran announced a stadium tour across North America. On 6 February 2018, Sheeran added dates to the leg with new cities that were not in the initial announcement, and second shows in Toronto, Foxborough, and East Rutherford. Snow Patrol was announced as the main opener for the North American stadium leg, along with Anne-Marie and Lauv in selected dates. On 25 June 2018, Sheeran added two dates, performing in South Africa in March 2019. On 19 September 2018, Sheeran added more 2019 dates to the tour, performing in stadiums across Europe and the UK, starting in May 2019. Due to high demand, numerous additional dates were added to the tour itinerary. Sheeran later added even more 2019 dates to the Divide tour, performing in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina in February 2019. He also announced that he would be returning to Asia in April 2019, performing the long-awaited dates that were scheduled to take place in Fall 2017 but were cancelled and rescheduled due to bone fractures in the arms from a bike accident. The cities that were affected by the cancellation were Taipei, Seoul, Hong Kong and Jakarta. Sheeran will perform three Asia 2019 dates in Singapore, Seoul, and Bangkok. Sheeran later announced a second date in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Cape Town Stadium The Cape Town Stadium (; ; known until 2025 as the DHL Stadium for sponsorship reasons) is an association football (soccer) and rugby union stadium in Cape Town, South Africa, that was built as part of the country's hosting of the 2010 FIFA World ...

, scheduled for 28 March 2019. On 28 November, Sheeran added dates in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

, and

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

. On 10 January 2019, Sheeran added dates in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

. For the last four shows, Sheeran played at Chantry Park in Ipswich in what was advertised as a homecoming set of gigs. For each of the four nights, a different additional support act performed; three were chosen by BBC Music Introducing in Suffolk and one by Hoax, all of which were local undercover artists. The local acts that performed were Bessie Turner, Caswell, Salvador and Piers James.

Commercial performance

In Ireland, more than 300,000 tickets for seven shows across Cork, Belfast, Galway and Dublin were sold in a single day, making history with Sheeran being the only artist to ever do so in Irish territory. Due to the phenomenal demand, extra dates were added in both Cork and Dublin, with three dates for each city in total. Sellout status occurred once again in Santiago during his first concert on 15 May, prompting to add one more date. In Oceania, the tour broke the official record for the most tickets sold, at over 1 million (previously held by the

Dire Straits Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in London in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (lead vocals, lead guitar), David Knopfler (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), John Illsley (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Pick Withers (drums, percussion). Th ...

Brothers in Arms Tour of 1985, with around 950,000), as well as most stadium shows by a single artist on one tour (18, formerly held by AC/DC at 14). Sheeran also broke records for the biggest stadium tour of Australia and New Zealand, venue record for highest cumulative attendance on one tour and venue record for highest attendance for a single show. More than 710,000 tickets were sold within a single day of general public sale. In

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, a total of 243,513 tickets were sold for three shows at the ANZ Stadium, which rolled out over three successive nights from 15 to 17 March 2018. The attendance per show was 79,726, 81,752 and 82,035, respectively. This set a new record for aggregate attendance at a series of stadium concerts in NSW, smashing the old benchmark of 213,045 set by

AC/DC AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock and Heavy metal music, heavy metal, although the band calls it simply "rock and roll". They are cited as a formativ ...

during their Black Ice World Tour in 2010. According to ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'', Sheeran's tour grossed $776.4 million and sold 8.88 million tickets across the 201 dates reported from 16 March 2017 to 31 October 2018. The tour was the eighth highest-grossing tour of 2017, accumulating $122 million and selling 1,408,681 tickets. The Divide Tour became 2018's highest-grossing tour with $429 million, setting all-time records for the highest-grossing solo tour and highest year-end gross ever. It then broke the all-time highest-grossing record of $735 million for any tour set by the

U2 360° Tour The U2 360° Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the Irish rock music, rock band U2. Staged in support of the group's 2009 album ''No Line on the Horizon'', the tour visited stadiums from 2009 through 2011. The concerts featured the band pla ...

before it finished, despite playing mostly in smaller venues and deliberately keeping tickets price relatively low with no VIP areas. This is due to the larger number of shows (255) in the tour, and it also became the most attended tour of all time with over 8.5 million having attended in 43 countries with further dates to play.

Set list

This set list is from the concert on 5 August 2017 in Glendale. It is not intended to represent all shows from the tour. # " Castle on the Hill" # " Eraser" # " The A Team" # " Don't" / " New Man" # " Dive" # "

Bloodstream In vertebrates, the circulatory system is a system of organs that includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood which is circulated throughout the body. It includes the cardiovascular system, or vascular system, that consists of the heart an ...

" # " Happier" # " Galway Girl" # " I See Fire" # " How Would You Feel (Paean)" # "

Photograph A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitivity, photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. Th ...

" # " Perfect" # " Nancy Mulligan" # " Thinking Out Loud" # "

Sing Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

" ;Encore # "

Shape of You "Shape of You" is a song by English singer Ed Sheeran. It was released on 6 January 2017 as one of the lead single, double lead singles from his third studio album ''÷ (album), ÷'' (2017), along with "Castle on the Hill". The Dancehall pop, ...

" # " You Need Me, I Don't Need You"

Tour dates

Cancelled shows

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Divide Tour 2017 concert tours 2018 concert tours 2019 concert tours Ed Sheeran concert tours Concert tours of Argentina Concert tours of Australia Concert tours of Austria Concert tours of Belgium Concert tours of Brazil Concert tours of Canada Concert tours of Chile Concert tours of Colombia Concert tours of Costa Rica Concert tours of the Czech Republic Concert tours of Denmark Concert tours of Finland Concert tours of France Concert tours of Germany Concert tours of Hong Kong Concert tours of Hungary Concert tours of Iceland Concert tours of India Concert tours of Indonesia Concert tours of Ireland Concert tours of Italy Concert tours of Japan Concert tours of Latvia Concert tours of Malaysia Concert tours of Mexico Concert tours of the Netherlands Concert tours of New Zealand Concert tours of Peru Concert tours of the Philippines Concert tours of Poland Concert tours of Portugal Concert tours of Puerto Rico Concert tours of Romania Concert tours of Russia Concert tours of Singapore Concert tours of South Africa Concert tours of South Korea Concert tours of Spain Concert tours of Sweden Concert tours of Switzerland Concert tours of Taiwan Concert tours of Thailand Concert tours of the United Arab Emirates Concert tours of the United States Concert tours of the United Kingdom Concert tours of Uruguay