ED Sheeran is gearing up for what promises to be a monumental return to the pop scene in 2025, teasing fans with the revelation that his next album is already complete.
The chart-topping singer has also secretly filmed two music videos, with plans for two more early next year as he preps for a big promotional push.
For the past year the singer-songwriter, 32, has been focused on other collaborative projects.
Ed recently worked with Love Actually director Richard Curtis on the Netflix animated feature That Christmas, which features his poignant holiday track Under the Tree.
The film gave Ed the opportunity to write his first ever ‘sad Christmas song’, which the singer said was important to him as “this is quite a lot of people’s realities at Christmas”.
Speaking from his home in London, Ed told Variety about the origins of his involvement.
“Richard showed me some storyboards when he was conceiving the project, and the original idea was that it would be a musical,” he said.
“He asked if I wanted to write music for it, and I said, ‘Cool.’ I wrote a chorus for one scene, but I didn’t hear anything back for a while.”
Two years later, Richard reached out again, asking Ed to finish the song and updating him on the film’s direction.
That Christmas is no longer an animated musical but an emotional feature set in the fictional British town of Wellington-on-Sea.
Richard praised Ed’s contribution while discussing the music video he directed for Under the Tree, saying: “I hope I’ve done justice to his gorgeous song.
“It’s lyrically magical and unlocks a critical moment in the film, filling you with layered emotions of longing and hope.”
However, as his other projects wrap up, Ed Sheeran has admitted that he is ready to return to his pop music roots.
Speaking about his upcoming album, he shared: “It feels like I’m getting back into big pop for the first time in a long time.
“It’s quite exciting.”
He also explained why he has deviated from that style of music for his past two albums, saying that it was because Equals came out during the pandemic, and Subtract was a completely different record that “didn’t really call for big pop stuff”.
