Sheeran performed his new single “Azizam” as a huge crowd formed underneath New York City for a ‘Tonight Show’ segment
Imagine going about your commute and stumbling upon an Ed Sheeran performance.
The Grammy winner, 34, looked unrecognizable as he sported a gothic disguise to busk with Jimmy Fallon in a New York City subway station for a segment on the April 8 episode of The Tonight Show.
The clip opens with Sheeran and Fallon, 50, introducing themselves as Frat Poison before launching into a cover of Chappell Roan‘s “Pink Pony Club” while dressed in all-black with wigs, sunglasses and piercings — looking similar to members of My Chemical Romance in the 2000s.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(697x168:699x170):format(webp)/ed-sheeran-jimmy-fallon-subway-busking-new-york-040925-449294f4db854b6f9ba906df09c2ac9f.jpg)
The “Perfect” singer strummed on guitar and Fallon played tambourine as a huge crowd formed around the performance. Eventually, the talk show host announced, “I’m Jimmy Fallon. This is Ed Sheeran right now!”
They took off the disguises to reveal their faces and real hair, and Sheeran then launched into a rendition of his new single “Azizam,” released April 4.
“I wanna be nowhere but here with you now / I wanna be one in this space / I wanna be tangled and wrapped in your cloud / I wanna be close to your face,” he sang, as Fallon danced around with his tambourine.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(686x238:688x240):format(webp)/ed-sheeran-jimmy-fallon-040925-1-7868207edbfc4baca02ce2c6432b0469.jpg)
In an interview on The Tonight Show last month, Sheeran revealed the titles of his next five albums — and similarly to his series of projects inspired by mathematics, they’re all related.
His next album will be called Play. “When I was like 18, I had an idea for like 10 albums. It’s Plus, Multiply, Divide, Subtract, Equals, and then Play, Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind and Stop,” the superstar explained.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)/ed-sheeran-jimmy-fallon-040925-3-d6c75efe6a8a4e82934fd65340ee2eed.jpg)
Sheeran was inspired by his Quentin Tarantino fandom. “I wanted to do 10. I’m kind of a bit obsessed with Tarantino, and I heard he was doing 10 films, and he’s got his side projects like Grindhouse and s—,” he said.
“So, I wanna do my 10 and then every now and then do a side project,” added Sheeran, who’s released 2019’s No. 6 Collaborations Project and 2023’s Autumn Variations in addition to his mathematic series.