Ed Sheeran surprised his fans with an impromptu live performance in New Orleans, timed with the release of his new song.
The 34-year-old Grammy-winning singer surprised the city's historic French Quarter by arriving unannounced, emerging from a black SUV wearing a colorful tie-dyed t-shirt and blue bottoms, according to People magazine.
As CBS affiliate 4WWL reports, Sheeran showed up in hand with a portable amp and mic, accompanied shortly after by The Soul Rebels, a New Orleans brass band that recently got to jam alongside Kendrick Lamar in the Super Bowl halftime performance.
The song then transitioned to the headlining performer himself, who crooned his soon-to-be-released single Azizam over an unsuspecting crowd, aided by a percussive musical accompaniment.
As People reported, Sheeran told the audience that this was the first time he had ever played the song live, according to local news site Nola.com.
We're gonna perform one song here, we're recording a little bit of content – and then we're doing a parade and walking down and playing some songs, if you'd like to join us," he declared to the audience seated there, according to the report.
"I've got a new song coming in a couple of weeks nobody's heard. This will be the first time it's ever been played live. We'll play it once now and then we'll go down, play some songs that you know, and I'll play this song again," Sheeran further added.
He then shared a video of the performance on Instagram, where he is seen moving his amplifier down the streets of New Orleans while a cheering crowd follows him. "Playing some new music today on the streets of New Orleans with @thesoulrebels thanks to everyone who turned up," he captioned the video.
This was not his surprise appearance for the week alone. Sheeran had also dropped in unplanned in Nashville, where he stunned the crowd at Tootsie's bar with a set of his largest hits and surprises covers, which included Britney Spears' Hit Me Baby One More Time.
Earlier in February, the singer had tried making another unplanned street performance in Bengaluru, India, but local authorities promptly intervened and terminated it.
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