How does a guy in a t-shirt and jeans ginger up an audience of 9,000 with just a guitar and a mic? This isn’t a trick question, as the answer’s plain: he’s gotta be  Ed Sheeran, a young, prolific love ballad writing Brit with a strikingly sweet affect and a ginger mane to boot. Very tough to match, that Ed. At 23, he’s got so many feelings – so much art – to share with the world. Unsurprisingly, Ed withheld nothing on the Minneapolis’s Target Center’s stage last Monday night.

“Let’s go back to thuh dinjay tymes where things were more simple, ehh?” he asked the crowd, 10 minutes into the concert. Now let’s dissect these angelic words of his, as they’re telling. First off, note the “let’s” and “ehh?” Sheeran works with the crowd, feels the crowd. He’s an entertainer in the truest sense of the word. Also of import: he actually asked to go back to the “dinjay tymes”  before a crowd of 9,000 international fans. Need one say more? If that inquest doesn’t set a tone of humility, I’m not sure what does.

With that in mind, the concert itself was like one big, deluxe 120 minute singalong with Sheeran, backed only by an acoustic guitar and some electronic tracks to layer his sounds. The musical program was a balanced mix of tender love songs (his main claim to fame) and some booming experimental rap, pop, and folk tracks from his newest record ‘X’ (said multiply).

Sheeran’s single ‘Don’t,’ the story of a former girlfriend’s particularly wounding betrayal, sent a palpable wave of energy through the sea of raving teenage girls (“How dare she!!”). It was performed with such resolved buoyancy and vulnerability, that even I felt a little enraged on Sheeran’s behalf come the end of it.

“So in love….So in love….So in love.” The swoon factor really began to kick in when Sheeran played his new song Tenerife Sea. He generously answered every (honest) viewers burning question – who the heck is this song for? – by dedicating it to a man who shrieked “I LOVE YOU ED,” from the audience. “This one’s for you big guy,” he said. “Shhhh…Will you let the man have this moment?!” he asked the audience.

Sheeran had the audience so enthralled that they acquiesced immediately, only to wave their bright smart phones back and forth through the air in what seemed like a warm, fuzzy trance. It’s the Ginge Effect, and quite honestly, it should be the default for everyday life.