Beyonce Joined By Ed Sheeran In South Africa For ‘Perfect’ Duet


Pop stars Ed Sheeran and Beyonce teamed up at the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 in Johannesburg, South Africa on Sunday to perform Sheeran’s moving love ballad, “Perfect Duet.” This was the duo’s first time performing the song together live, according to Idolator.

Beyonce, who headlined the festival alongside her husband Jay-Z, took to the stage wearing a dark pink dress filled with ruffles. She invited Sheeran to join her on stage with his acoustic guitar. Video footage shows the crowd cheering and singing along to every word of the touching tune, and many fans later took to social media to say that the duo should record more songs together.

Sheeran originally released “Perfect” as part of his third studio album, ÷, in 2017. Later that year, in December, he then re-recorded the track with Beyonce and named it “Perfect Duet.” The duet stood at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for five weeks following its release.

Although the two had never performed “Perfect Duet” together live before, they did appear on stage together at the Global Citizen Festival in 2015 for an acoustic performance of Beyonce’s 2013 hit “Drunk In Love.”

The Global Citizen Festival is an annual music festival aimed at raising money to end poverty. The 2018 festival marked the end of a year of celebrations for what would have been the 100th year of life for the late Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa and a global inspiration, according to Entertainment Tonight.

Other performers at Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 included Pharrell, Usher, and Eddie Vedder. Coldplay’s lead vocalist Chris Martin, who became the festival’s curator in 2015, also performed his band’s new single with Pharrell, “E-Lo,” under the name Los Unidades.

Jay-Z also joined Beyonce on stage to perform singles from their summer 2018 joint album Everything Is Love, which was released under the name The Carters. Together they shook the audience as they sang their hits “Apesh*t” and “Holy Grail.”

The majority of Global Citizen Festival tickets are given away to people each year in exchange for taking action to end poverty. Those who want tickets can sign petitions, send emails, share tweets, and more to spread the word about a specific cause, such as access to clean drinking water and funding for girls’ education. Each action taken translates to points that can be entered into a contest to win free tickets.

“Over 5.65 million actions led to 58 commitments and announcements worth $7,207,436,824, set to affect the lives of 137,368,628 people,” Global Citizen’s website said following the festival.

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