Five million people applied for tickets to Ed Sheeran's UK tour, according to his agent

It seems a lot of us are rather keen to see Ed Sheeran live, as the singer's agent has claimed five million people tried to snap up tickets to his UK shows. 

The star's booking agent, Jon Ollier, of CAA, said that demand for Ed's live shows was "unprecedented" in the UK. Tickets for the April/May shows went on sale back in January this year. 

"It has been absolutely off the scale,” Jon told Music Week. “I'm told that, in the UK alone, five million people tried to buy tickets, which is unprecedented."

Apart from a one-off show at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust last month, the concerts are Sheeran's first UK shows since his three-night run at Wembley Stadium in 2015, where OfficialCharts.com honoured Ed with the very first Official Number 1 album award for his second record x. 

Discussing how Ed can top those massive 2015 shows, promoter of Ed's current tour Steve Tilley of Kilimanjaro said: "I expected it to carry on where he left off because Ed is a master of confounding everyone's expectations.

"You can't rest on your laurels with Ed, he's very unpredictable; you think he'll do one thing and he'll do another. I've heard songs acoustically that didn't make this record that I thought were outstanding. He just carries on confounding expectations."

Ed's tour hits Dublin on April 12/13 before playing 13 arena dates across the UK, including three at London's O2 arena. 

Two artists are confirmed to support the dates: rising star Anne-Marie and mutli-instrumentalist Ryan McMullan. 

Ed currently leads the way with 2017's biggest album for ÷ and biggest single for Shape Of You, with ÷ having shifted over 1.8 million across all formats.

Watch OfficialCharts.com catching up with Ed at his 2015 Wembley Stadium dates: 

Article image: Rex