1 of 5 | Ed Sheeran performs on the "Today" show in December 2021 in New York City. On Friday, he announced a 14-date theater tour in conjunction with his already-announced stadium tour starting on May 13. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI |
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April 28 (UPI) -- Ed Sheeran's upcoming tour is known as the Mathematics tour and in that spirit, he's adding more dates. The United Kingdom-born singer will play theaters and auditoriums in 14 U.S. cities in conjunction with his already announced stadium tour that starts on May 13 at NRG Stadium in Houston.
His first theater date is on May 19 at the Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Fla.
Sheeran's opening act for the newly announced dates will be singer/songwriter Ben Kweller. Both tours are in support of Subtract, the latest of Sheeran's mathematically named releases, which is due out on May 5.
The first single, "Eyes Closed," was released last month.
Sheeran is also in court this week defending a copyright case that alleges that he used the rhythm and chord progression among other elements from Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" for his 2014 song "Thinking Out Loud."
Sheeran sang and played portions of his song on guitar for the jury deciding the case. In 2017, he was sued by the heirs of musician Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the song with Gaye and already receives two-thirds of the royalties from it.
Sheeran's lawyers assert that "Thinking Out Loud," which Sheeran composed with co-writer Amy Wadge was written from elements that are common to many songs. But a fan video that shows Sheeran going from "Thinking Out Loud" to "Let's Get it On" in concert is among some of the evidence the plaintiff's lawyers say proves their case.
"That concert video is a confession," attorney Benjamin Crump, who is better known for his civil rights cases said in court.
Sheeran won another case in 2022 that alleged that the song "Shape of You," was lifted from "Oh Why" a 2015 song written by grime artist Sami Chokri and Ross O'Donoghue.
"I feel like claims like this are way too common now and have become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court. Even if there's no base for the claim," Sheeran said in a statement at the time.
"It's really damaging to the songwriting industry. There's only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music. Coincidence is bound to happen if 60,000 songs are being released every day on Spotify. That's 22 million songs a year, and there's only 12 notes that are available."
However, Sheeran lost to Matt Cardle, the winner of the British version of X Factor, paying an undisclosed amount in 2016 to settle a lawsuit that also alleged copyright infringement. And in 2017, he added Kandi Burruss and Tameka Harris as songwriters on the song "Shape of You" which he admitted incorporated the TLC hit "No Scrubs."
