If you were at a 50 Cent show, and he was teasing a special guest, and the guest was behind a rising box emblazoned with the harrowing message, “There is a monster in this box,” and you thought, “There’s no way that’s gonna be Ed Sheeran” — well, you’d be wrong.
The menacing maestro of pop, the Lucifer of the loop pedal, the acoustic animal himself made a surprise appearance at 50 Cent’s show in London Tuesday night, Nov. 21. It wasn’t even to perform their one collaboration together, “Remember the Name,” off 2019’s No. 6 Collaborations Project (which also features Eminem). It was so Sheeran could perform his (apparently still) inescapable 2017 smash, “Shape of You,” with 50 eagerly jumping in with some hypeman ad-libs.
Amidst cameo duties, Sheeran also documented the entire evening on Instagram Stories, quipping in his first clip, “50 Cent has invited me to the O2 to sing ‘Shape of You.’ And I’m going to walk on stage and say, Who likes ‘In Da Club’? Here’s ‘Shape of You’!”
In other clips, Sheeran filmed himself roaming around backstage and singing along to 50 Cent’s hit “21 Questions.” Later he was seated in the arena belting along to “Many Men (Wish Death)” and losing it (like everyone) when 50 did eventually play “In Da Club.”
After the show, 50 thanked Sheeran for showing up, writing on Instagram, “My man came through for me tonight, 💣BOOM💨LONDON went crazy! It don’t get bigger than this.”
50 Cent has a bunch of international dates left on his “Final Lap” tour, with the run culminating Dec. 21 in Abu Dhabi. He spent much of this year touring North America, though he will return to Phoenix on March 3, 2024, after postponing an August gig there due to dangerous triple-digit temperatures.
As for Sheeran, along with gracing the cover of Rolling Stone earlier this year, he released a pair of albums, first dropping – (Subtract) in May and, more recently, Autumn Variations at the end of September. The former album also just earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album.
