Ed Sheeran's Global Experiment With 'Play'

Ed Sheeran's Play is a bold global experiment you'll want to know more about. He spent a month in Goa absorbing Indian rhythms, collaborated with Iranian legend Googoosh on "Azizam," and wove Punjabi, Hindi, and Tamil elements throughout. With 22 collaborators spanning R&B, hip-hop, and South Asian music, it's his most ambitious project yet. Grief, love, and cultural discovery all shaped it — and there's far more to unpack ahead.

Key Takeaways

• Ed Sheeran spent a month in Goa, India, immersing himself in local music, rhythms, and instruments to authentically shape the album.
• "Sapphire" blends English with Punjabi and Hindi lyrics, while "Azizam" features Iranian legend Googoosh, showcasing genuine cross-cultural collaboration.
• The album involved 22 collaborators spanning R&B, hip-hop, and pop, including Khalid, Eminem, Camila Cabello, and Justin Bieber.
• Personal grief, including Jamal Edwards' death and Cherry's cancer diagnosis, redirected the album into an emotionally raw, unresolved collection.
• A six-single rollout strategy kept the album commercially relevant through playlist positioning and international press hooks after its September 2025 release.

The Indian and Persian Sounds Defining Ed Sheeran's Play

Ed Sheeran didn't just record his album Play in a studio — he recorded parts of it in Goa, India, spending a full month immersing himself in local music, colors, rhythms, and instruments. That Indian instrumentation shaped the album's warmth and mood in ways a typical studio never could've. You'll hear it clearly in "Sapphire," where he blends English with Punjabi and Hindi lyrics he learned on the ground.

Then there's "Don't Look Down," remixed with Tamil elements alongside Santhosh Narayanan and Dhee. Persian vocalism runs through the album too — "Azizam" features Iranian legend Googoosh, and the title itself means "my dear" in Persian. Together, these influences turn Play into something that genuinely crosses borders rather than just borrowing aesthetics. Beyond these collaborations, Sheeran has also planned partnerships with Jonita Gandhi, Karan Aujla, and Hanumankind, further deepening the album's connection to India's vibrant musical landscape.

The Collaborators Who Shaped Ed Sheeran's Play

Few albums lean on collaboration like Play does — with 22 collaborators total, it's fundamentally a star-studded ensemble project. You'll notice how strategically Sheeran distributes his features across genres. Khalid anchors the lead single "Beautiful People" with R&B warmth, while Justin Bieber joins him on track 6's pop-driven "I Don't Care."

The unexpected pairings get bolder deeper into the tracklist — Eminem and 50 Cent bring hip-hop intensity to "Remember the Name" at track 8, a sharp tonal shift from earlier cuts. Female collaborators also play a defining role: Camila Cabello and Cardi B both appear on "South of the Border," blending Latin and hip-hop textures. Chance the Rapper and PnB Rock round out "Cross Me," making Play a genuinely genre-spanning, personality-rich listening experience. The album was released under Warner Music UK, giving it the major-label infrastructure needed to support such an ambitious, multi-artist rollout.

The Grief and Love Behind Play's Most Personal Tracks

When Jamal Edwards died on February 20, 2022, at just 31 years old, Sheeran lost someone closer to him than any previous loss — closer than grandparents, closer than Michael Gudinski — and the grief hit differently because of it. That loss, layered with Cherry's cancer diagnosis during pregnancy, pushed Sheeran into a depressed, anxious state that scrapped his original album plans entirely. His grief processing became the album itself.

Tracks like "End of Youth," "Sycamore," and "Vega" map the emotional wreckage honestly, without resolution. Yet family solace threads through the darkness — his daughter's smile, Cherry's presence, small moments that reminded him why persisting mattered. The wounds stay open, but those anchors kept him writing when nothing else could. Songs were developed quickly, with Aaron Dessner sending initial drafts before Sheeran layered in lyrics shaped entirely by what he was living through.

What Critics Got Right (and Wrong) About Play

Critics got these points right:

• Global influences like Hindi and Persian elements genuinely energize certain tracks
• "Symmetry" delivers a distinctive sonic texture worth noticing
• Ambition is clearly present, even if it's inconsistent

Where they missed the mark involves audience reception — fans aren't demanding reinvention; they're rewarding familiarity.

What critics correctly flagged, though, is that Play's 13 tracks feel safe rather than celebratory, returning to wedding songs and radio-ready formulas without recapturing Sheeran's earlier wit or originality. For listeners wanting to explore music facts by genre or artist background, trivia and fact tools can offer useful context when evaluating an album's cultural reach.

Sheeran has already outlined plans for four additional albums following this one, each themed around media control symbols, raising real questions about whether the concept has enough creative depth to sustain itself.

How Ed Sheeran Kept Play Alive After Release

Ed Sheeran rolled out Play with a deliberate six-single strategy — "Azizam," "Old Phone," "Sapphire," "A Little More," "Camera," and "Symmetry" — keeping the album in public conversation long after its 12 September 2025 release.

That staggered rollout fueled post-release promotion by giving listeners a steady stream of entry points rather than one launch moment.

You can see the payoff in the streaming numbers, which held strong well beyond the debut week.

Playlist positioning played a major role here — the album's polished, algorithm-ready production made it easy for curators to slot tracks into mood-based and genre-spanning playlists.

Sheeran's dependable melodic instincts did the rest, keeping Play commercially relevant across multiple markets without requiring constant reinvention or heavy promotional intervention. The album's world-music elements, from the Bollywood textures of "Sapphire" with Arijit Singh to the Iranian flourishes of "Azizam," gave international press and playlist curators additional cultural hooks to amplify the rollout across regions.