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Believe it or not, there is an album full of songs Ed Sheeran wishes he could play more on his Mathematics Tour, which is in its last year in 2025.
He did a Q&A with fans via his Ed Sheeran HQ Instagram account, and one fan asked if he had a song he wishes he could play more that “doesn't fit into concerts” on the ninth slide. He named a song from his 2023 Subtract album for his answer.
“I love ‘Boat,' that works sometimes if a crowd is listening,” Sheeran explained, continuing, “but if it's a big gig and people come to party, I avoid Subtract songs.”
But why does Sheeran avoid his 2023 album in concerts? His answer is simple: “No one wants to be sad on a Saturday night,” Sheeran explained.
It does make sense — Sheeran's Subtract album is one of the few without pop songs on it. “Eyes Closed” is the closest the album comes to a radio-friendly single, but the album is mostly full of ballads.
Subtract is Sheeran's most personal album to date. Some of the songs are about the death of his close friend, Jamal Edwards. It was a critical success as well.
At the 66th Grammy Awards in 2024, Subtract was up for Best Pop Vocal Album. It had stiff competition, including Olivia Rodrigo's Guts and Miley Cyrus' Endless Summer Vacation. However, they all lost to Taylor Swift's Midnights, which also took home Album of the Year.
The album closed out his series of albums named after math symbols. It was the first of two albums to be released in 2023 — Autumn Variations came out on September 29.
Is Ed Sheeran on tour in 2025?
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Currently, Sheeran is in the final year of his Mathematics Tour. The tour was initially launched in April 2022 in support of his fifth studio album, Equals, released on October 29, 2021.
However, since it started, Ed Sheeran has released two more albums (Subtract and Autumn Variations). The setlist has slightly changed over the course of the tour, but it still features all of his biggest hits.
It is Sheeran's equivalent to the Eras Tour. Throughout each show, he performs songs from all of his albums. These include his biggest such, such as “Perfect,” “Photograph,” and “Shape of You.”
The Mathematics Tour began in 2022 with a European leg. He then performed across North America in 2023 before going overseas in 2024. Sheeran will perform in countries like Japan, Brazil, and Singapore throughout the year.
He started his 2025 run of shows on January 24 in Bhutan. Sheeran is currently performing shows across India before going to China. He will eventually return to Europe to close out the tour.
The Mathematics Tour is set to conclude on September 7, 2025, in Düsseldorf, Germany, at the Merkur Spiel-Arena. Sheeran will perform three shows there from September 5-7.
By the time it is all said and done, Sheeran will have performed 165 shows across the many legs of the tour. That is still less than his previous Divide Tour, which spanned a shorter amount of time.
From March 16, 2017, to August 26, 2019, Sheeran performed 260 shows on the Divide Tour across 14 legs. It remains one of the biggest tours of all time.
