Audacy is bringing you the world premiere of Ed Sheeran’s new single “Eyes Closed,” all day on March 24 beginning at 12AM ET.
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Ahead of dropping the track, Ed posted a message to his fans and followers on Instagram sharing the meaning behind the song.
“This song is about losing someone, feeling like every time you go out and you expect to just bump into them, and every thing just reminds you of them and things you did together. You sorta have to take yourself out of reality sometimes to numb the pain of loss, but certain things just bring you right back into it. Blue was Jamal’s colour, but now is all I feel. And I guess music helps heal, so I’m dancing with my eyes closed to try get through it.”
The emotional tribute to Jamal Edwards, is just one of the ways Ed is honoring his late best friend. Recently telling Rolling Stone, “I would never, ever, ever touch anything again, because that’s how Jamal died,” referring to drugs. “And that’s just disrespectful to his memory to even, like, go near.”
When it came to the music video, Ed shared, “I wanted to make a video inspired by movies like Harvey, where the main character has an imaginary friend who’s a giant rabbit that no one can see.”
He continued, “there’s also a book I read my daughters where sadness is encapsulated by an imaginary creature. Often sadness is something that follows you around, engulfing the rooms you’re in, and you can feel and see it, but no one else around you can. So I decided to create my own big blue monster for the video. He gets bigger and bigger as the video goes on, til he takes up whole rooms, and is all I can see, just like sadness. I’m so proud of this video, made by the wonderful @_miabarnes, and I LOVE the big blue monster.” Adding that he’ll be “popping up places and available soon but more on that later.”
“Eyes Closed” marks the first single off Ed’s forthcoming acoustic album, Subtract, set to drop May 5.
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