Ed Sheeran Gets ‘Emotional’ After Performing ‘Goodbye My Lover’ with James Blunt

Ed Sheeran and James Blunt had an emotional reunion over the weekend.

The “Thinking Out Loud” singer got emotional during his Sunday, July 13, concert at Portman Road Stadium in the UK when he brought out Blunt, 51, to sing together.

“I rarely get nervous at gigs, I do this so often,” Sheeran, 34, told the audience before introducing Blunt for their duet of Blunt’s “Goodbye My Lover.” “I’m very nervous to sing this, because I’ve never sung this with him and this really is a dream come true.”

Sheeran strummed on the guitar while Blunt played the keyboard. The crowd sang along with the musicians to the 2004 ballad.

 “I’m quite emotional after that actually,” Sheeran told the packed stadium after their duet. “That is top three favorite moment on stage ever. Ever.”

The “Photograph” singer posted about their connection on Instagram later that evening, recalling an early memory of seeing Blunt open for Elton John when Sheeran was only 13 years old. “I bought his album that day, then got obsessed,” he recalled.

After seeing Blunt perform another time, Sheeran said Blunt “became my favourite singer songwriter.”

“His songs moulded me, his performing inspired me. I wanted to be him. I wanted to be him so much that I signed to the same management as him. I wanted to be him so much I signed to the same record label as him.”

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Sheeran added that he and Blunt had been friends for over 10 years, and Sheeran is godfather to one of Blunt’s sons.

“But I sometimes forget that I was a 13 year old boy who got obsessed with a singer songwriter called James Blunt. I covered his songs at the school talent show. I went to numerous gigs. I am a fan,” added Sheeran.

“But I’m now also a friend, which is super weird actually when I think about it. I asked him to do the final night at Ipswich because of that gig 21 years ago where I saw him at the same venue.”

Sheeran concluded his post, thanking Blunt for coming to the UK to sing with him two days after he wrapped up his South American tour.

“You should be resting, but you flew to ipswich to sing with me. And it meant the world,” he raved. “Top 3 favourite moments on stage of all time for me. Don’t meet your heroes, unless your heroes are James blunt. Love you mate xx.”

Blunt told PEOPLE about his relationship with Sheeran back in 2017, and how they exchanged skillsets with one another.

“I spent a lot of time in Switzerland, and he wanted to ski. So I took him on a skiing holiday and I was his ski instructor by day. And by night, he taught me how to write songs,’ he said at the time.

“I think for my first album, some of my songs got a lot of criticism after they’d been perhaps overplayed. So I kind of shut down — I stopped writing really open lyrics,” Blunt continued, adding that Sheeran helped change his perspective, bringing back his “authenticity and confidence.”