Ed Sheeran struggled to hold back tears while performing at a tribute concert for Australian tour promoter Michael Gudinski.
Gudinski, a leading figure in the Australian music industry, died in his sleep aged 68 on 1 March.
Sheeran was among the musicians to pay tribute to him at the time, sharing a picture on Instagram of the pair walking along a beach at sunset captioned: “I’ll miss you mate.”
On Wednesday (24 March), the British singer took part in a star-studded concert for Gudinski’s state memorial at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena.
Describing the Mushroom Records founder as “a father figure and mentor”, the singer performed his hit song “Castle on the Hill”, which he said was Gudinski’s personal favourite even though he had learnt the lyrics wrong.
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Later performing the song “Visiting Hours”, Sheeran choked up, taking a step back from the microphone to collect himself before resuming playing his acoustic guitar.
As the song ended, the singer broke down in tears and walked off stage crying.
Opening his set, Sheeran told the audience: “I never get this nervous, I’m really f***ing nervous. So apologies if I mess up the lyrics or anything.”
Later, the “Shape of You” singer joined Kylie Minogue on stage for a rendition of the “The Loco-motion”.
Sheeran had been granted an exemption to travel from the UK to Australia with his family.
Other international stars including Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift sent video tributes to Gudinski, which played to the 15,000 person audience during the ceremony.
