His unkempt orange hair gives him the air of a perennial teenager, but recent events, in spite of himself, have made him grow Ed Sheeran even beyond his 32 years. He was the one who told it himself, protagonist yesterday at the Fabrique in Milan of an acoustic live for a few hundred people, 450 fans who won a competition, and a few guests, including Italian artists such as Mr Rain, Matteo Bocelli, Matteo Paolillo and Gianluca Ginoble of the Il Volo trio. The British singer-songwriter, also celebrated in Milan with an installation in Piazza Gae Aulenti open until Thursday, presented live many unreleased tracks from his new album «-» («Subtract»), due out on May 5, opening with the public in a sincere and unfiltered way. “I know you were here to hear some songs and enjoy yourself, but this is going to be a sad hour,” he announced.
On the other hand, he had already anticipated it by announcing it the album on social media in recent weeks: the new songs were born from two great mourning – two missing friends – and from the discovery of a tumor that struck his wife while she was pregnant with their second daughter. All in one month, so much to digest. And the first two tracks of the Milanese live, «Boat» and «Salt water», the same ones that open the disc, made with Aaron Dessner of The National, let us enter the mood: «At that time I felt like every day was the worst of my life, but the next one was even worse. It was like standing in the middle of the waves and not seeing any way out of the water.” The already released single, «Eyes closed», deals with the pain of loss: «My best friend Jamal died suddenly. Four hours ago I was talking to him and then he was gone. I couldn’t believe it when it happened», explains Sheeran, before widening his eyes because the audience is already singing it by heart: «It’s the first time I’ve heard people sing it, I forgot it’s already out, it’s beautiful». In «Life goes on» comes the awareness that at a certain point one must go forward, even in pain: «When Jamal died I wanted the world to stop, as happened for the queen, for a day it was like this, but then everyone has returned to their former lives. I wasn’t ready. And even now, 15 months later, when I think about it, I feel as sad as I did then.” With «End of youth» there is the observation that certain traumas make one become an adult, often too caught up: «It can happen at any age. It’s not fair, there are things you shouldn’t try until you’re old enough to handle them.”
What he and his wife went through describes it between «Colourblind» and «Sycamore», two other unpublished works: «Last February I was rehearsing for the Brit Awards and my wife called me. She had gone to get checked out because she had a bulge. “She cancels everything, she’s cancer,” she told me. She was six months pregnant. He’s fine now, but in those moments you think all kinds of things.” In «No strings» comes hope: «I understood that if together we have faced what has happened to us, we can face everything». And after a last unpublished, «The hills of Aberfeldy», before running to Fabio Fazio, guest of What’s the weather likethere is also room for a greatest hits with the hits that made this boy next door one of the biggest pop stars in the world. With «Perfect», partly sung in Italian as in the version created together with Andrea Bocelli, she reaffirms her love for the language that she tries to speak on several occasions: «When I went to Andrea’s to record I decided to learn Italian, I had lessons every day for an hour» he says, explaining that then the time between music and the two daughters became too little. And he says goodbye with a promise: “I hope one day to come here and never say a word in English again.”