Ed Sheeran has announced a tour of arena venues in the UK and Ireland beginning in April 2017, to support his upcoming third album ÷.

The UK and Ireland leg of Sheeran’s European tour, which had already been announced to begin in mainland Europe in March 2017, will commence in Dublin on two nights of April 12-13th. It will then take in the UK mainland for two nights apiece in Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Nottingham and Birmingham before finishing off in London’s O2 Arena on May 2nd.

The 25 year old singer, who announced his return after a year-long break in 2016 earlier this month, had also previously announced live dates in South America, Central America and Mexico in May and June.

Ed SheeranEd Sheeran's tour will hit the UK and Ireland in April and May 2017

Tickets for the British and Irish live dates go on sale at 10am on Thursday February 2nd via Sheeran’s official website.

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An extensive tour of North America has not yet been announced but is widely expected to be detailed soon, with unconfirmed rumours that fellow British singer-songwriter James Blunt is to accompany him as support.

Sheeran’s two new singles, ‘Shape of You’ and ‘Castle On the Hill’, were released in early January and made British chart history by entering at numbers 1 and 2 in the same week. He then announced details of his third album, ÷ (following the mathematical themes of + and x), which will be released on March 3rd.

In a recent interview, Sheeran announced that he would soon be appearing on James Corden’s smash hit mini-series ‘Carpool Karaoke’ in America. Furthermore, he said that he intends to showcase his rapping skills. Anybody who heard his impromptu cover of the ‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ theme tune will be anticipating this hugely.

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