Ed Sheeran and Elton John preview new Christmas single, out this week
In a preview clip of the festive team-up, the pair parody the classic doorstep scene from 'Love Actually'
By Tom Skinner
Ed Sheeran and Elton John have shared a preview of their new festive single, ‘Merry Christmas’ – watch the video below.
Sheeran performed a snippet of the collaborative track during an interview on BBC Radio 2 last month, revealing the lyrics: “So kiss me under the mistletoe/ Pour out the wine/ Let’s toast and pray for December snow/ I know there’s been pain this year but it’s time to let it go/ Next year you’ll never know/ But for now Merry Christmas.”
Following the brief performance, he explained: “There’s loads of sleigh bells on it and it sounds a lot more Christmassy than that.”
Today (November 29) it’s been confirmed that ‘Merry Christmas’ by Sheeran and John will arrive this coming Friday (December 3). You can pre-order/pre-save it here.
The announcement comes with a clip that sees Sheeran – donning a festive jumper – spoof the iconic doorstep scene from ‘Love Actually’. John answers the door to his new collaborator, who holds up a series of handwritten signs containing a message on how the tune came about.
“Last Christmas I received a call from my mate Elton John,” it reads. “And he told me we should do a ‘Christmas Song’, and I replied, ‘Yeah, maybe in 2022’. But I actually wrote the chorus that day, and here we are.
“Our Christmas song ‘Merry Christmas’ is out this Friday. It has sleigh bells. A lot of them.”
You can watch the clip, which is soundtracked by an instrumental portion of the track, here:
Sharing the same video, John said that “all UK proceeds from this year’s Christmas period will go to the Ed Sheeran Suffolk Music Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation (@ejaf )”.
Sheeran first spoke of the festive collaboration with Dutch radio station NPO Radio 2, explaining: “Elton rang me on Christmas Day to say Merry Christmas. Elton rings me almost every single day.”
He added that John was excited that his 1973 single, ‘Step Into Christmas’, had finally reached the UK top 10 last year. “[Elton] said, ‘Step Into Christmas is Number 6 in the charts! I want to do another Christmas song – will you do it with me?’”
Ed Sheeran’s fourth studio album, ‘=’, came out last month. He’ll showcase the record during an intimate one-off show at St John at Hackney Church in London on December 13.
Sheeran recently revealed that he plans to release “10 symbol records” overall, including ‘+’, ‘x’, ‘÷’ and ‘=’. He subsequently confirmed his next full-length was ready to go, explaining that he’d “basically made two records over the last four years”.
Elton John, meanwhile, released his star-studded latest album ‘The Lockdown Sessions’ on October 22.