Ed Sheeran Joins Taylor Swift as Eras Tour Resumes

Taylor Swift returned to London's Wembley Stadium Thursday night for her first concert since reports of a terror plot caused the cancelation of three Vienna gigs—and her first in the UK since three young girls were stabbed to death at a Swift-themed dance workshop in northwest England.

• Longtime friend and collaborator Ed Sheeran made a surprise appearance at the Wembley show. They performed their duets "Everything Has Changed" and "End Game" before singing Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud," Variety reports. "This is one of my best friends in the world to the point where I feel like he's a second brother of mine," Swift told the crowd.
• Security was tight at the concert, the first of five at Wembley in this leg of the record-breaking Eras Tour, the BBC reports. Fans without tickets were banned from "Tay-gating" outside the stadium.

• Swift didn't make any direct reference to Vienna or the Southport tragedy, "but it didn't feel like an omission," writes Anita Singh at the Telegraph. "The positivity of the night felt like an antidote." She adds: "A confession: before tonight, which was a treat for my daughter, I didn't fully 'get' Taylor Swift. Now I do." Singh says the set was "temporarily halted by an ovation so long and loud and heartfelt that Swift took out her ear monitor to experience it fully. She likened the audience's appreciation to 'a love system overload.' You could apply that to the whole show. It's what the world needs right now."
• Swift has privately reached out to families affected by the Southport attack, the BBC reports.
• The AP reports that Swift will play four more sold-out shows at the 92,000 capacity Wembley, bringing the Eras Tour total there to eight, a record for a solo artist. The tour will resume in October with three dates at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

(More Taylor Swift stories.)