For Ed Sheeran's Mathematics Tour stop in Toronto, Shawn Mendes ...

Ed Sheeran performs on NBC's Today show at Rockefeller Plaza in New York, on June 6.Charles Sykes/The Associated Press

“I hope you felt entertained,” Ed Sheeran said to a full house at Toronto’s Rogers Centre on Saturday. It was toward the end of a dynamic and endearing two-hour concert, after Canada’s Shawn Mendes had made a two-song cameo appearance. A pair of pop superstars for the price of one. Do the math – you know Sheeran has.

Indeed, the British singer-songwriter is currently on his Mathematics Tour, so named because the set list draws on his albums Plus, Multiply, Divide, Equals and, his latest, Subtract. Life for the uncomplicated bloke from Suffolk comes down to equations: Some of Subtract’s heartfelt pop was inspired by the sudden death of his best friend.

He talked about it during the first night of two at the Rogers Centre, saying he thought in his grief he had bumped into his deceased pal one night in West London. “I obviously didn’t,” he continued, before singing the emotive Eyes Closed. “Every song reminds me you’re gone, and I feel the lump form in my throat because I’m here alone …”

That is about as maudlin as things got. Operating in the round on a stage that offered 360-degree views as it often revolved as he sang, Sheeran rocked convincingly with a small backing band on show-starters Tides and Blow. More often than not he strummed an acoustic guitar solo in his upbeat and syncopated way, using an electronic looping device to create repeating instrumental and vocal patterns.

Even when his bandmates did appear, they were spread out around the stage and separated from Sheeran by 10 metres or more. All focus was on the ebullient Sheeran, who works a stadium as if it were open-mic night at the Fox & Friar. His hypermodern pop tunes are simple, slick, sincere and highly serviceable.

For the so-many singalongs, he asked the crowd if they knew the words. (They did.) To accompany the sentimental ballad The A Team, he requested and received a sea of smartphone lights. When instructed to jump to Castle on the Hill, his fans did not bother to reply, “How high?” They even indulged his terrifying moments of red-haired rap.

Sheeran’s tour also incorporates a number of theatre dates, including a concert the night before at Toronto’s 2,500-capacity History venue. While those intimate appearances are dedicated to the new album specifically, the stadium shows are career encompassing.

The staging was colourful and artful, not colossal. Black and white images flooded the circular screen that hung over the stage. Because the stadium roof was open, one could notice that the construction cranes high in the sky outside matched the ones inside that held up six giant guitar picks doubling as video screens. (Were they guitar picks, or were they teardrops? The shapes are similar, and Sheeran knows how to use both.)

Nearby condo owners sitting on their balconies would have heard the crowd scream at about 10 o’clock. That is when Mendes, the pride of Pickering, Ont., appeared on stage to accompany Sheeran on Lego House and on his own There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back. It marked a comeback for Mendes, who last summer cancelled a number of concert dates to focus on his mental health. He had not performed since.

Sheeran and Mendes hugged. These are young men not afraid to show their vulnerability, and public displays of fragility are common among pop stars of their generation. Mendes broke down in tears in the 2020 Netflix documentary In Wonder. Sheeran did the same in his Disney+ series The Sum Of It All.

For his encore set of You Need Me, I Don’t Need You, the megahit Shape of You and the nightcap Bad Habits, Sheeran wore a numbered Toronto Blue Jays jersey with Mendes’s name on the back. This fellow doesn’t miss a trick: No. 8 in the program, but No. 1 in your heart.

Ed Sheeran plays Vancouver’s B.C. Place, Sept. 2.