Ben&Ben have announced that they are opening for Ed Sheeran’s concert in Manila this March 9 at the SMDC Festival Grounds.
In a Facebook post uploaded by the band today (February 27), they wrote, “Ma, special guest na kami ni Ed Sheeran sa concert niya. Parang dati lang, nagcocover lang kami ng “Perfect” sa Youtube. Never in our wildest dreams did we think this could happen. Surreal.”
(Ma, we’re Ed Sheeran’s special guests at his concert. It seems like just yesterday, we were covering “Perfect” on Youtube. Never in our wildest dreams did we think this could happen. Surreal.)
They will be joined by singer-songwriter Calum Scott as Sheeran’s special guests at the event. Tickets are now available through Ovation Productions. They are priced at P3,000 and P6,500 for standing sections, P11,500 for free seating, and P14,500, P16,500, P18,500, and P20,500 for different reserved seating sections, depending on their location.
The concert is part of his on-going +–=÷× Tour, pronounced as the Mathematics Tour. It will feature songs across Sheeran’s different albums released over the years. He announced the tour last year, and his Asia stops include the Philippines, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and India. His Manila concert follows his stop in Indonesia on March 2.
In other news, Ben&Ben were featured as the cover stars of Billboard Philippines’ folk issue, where they talked about their journey as a band and the uniqueness of Filipino folk music. Upon talking about their songwriting process, guitarist Poch Barretto shared, “At the core of every song is the songwriting. Paolo and Miguel wrote most of [the songs]. Their tastes come out of it. It’s such a blessing and coincidence that everyone in the band, even though we have so many different influences and styles, we have the sensibility to build on whatever’s there already. We’re aligned in the purpose of what the songs should give, or mean. We always make it a point to respect the message of each song, and make it sound in a way that we see fits that message.”
Copies are available here.