genre pop

Ed Sheeran‘s been making music long enough to know that not everyone’s going to be a fan of what he puts out — and the same goes for his new song, “Azizam.”
After one reviewer had a particularly harsh assessment of the carefree dance track, which dropped Friday (April 4), the singer-songwriter shared a hilarious, brief response before keeping it moving. The critic — a popular TikToker who shares thoughts on music and pop culture under the name The Swiftologist — had blasted “Azizam” in a recent video, calling the track “the same f–k-ng thing” as many of Sheeran’s past hits.

“‘Shivers,’ ‘Bad Habits’ and ‘Shape of You’ are all the same song [as ‘Azizam’], and they’re all so f—ing annoying,” he’d continued. “There has been no evolution from 2016. I feel like I’m going crazy … I’ll never get these two minutes of my life back.”

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The Swiftologist, whose real name is Zachary, also criticized the four-time Grammy winner’s songwriting style as a whole in the video. “The songs are good in the way that, I don’t know, heroin is good for people,” he’d added. “It’s addictive in a way that is not supposed to be good for the human brain. The way that he writes songs with the specific intention for them to be hits, he is soulless.”

So, how did Sheeran react? “lol,” the musician simply wrote in the comments.

For what it’s worth, Zachary offered in response to Sheeran’s reply: “King I’m so sorry. But we need to come up with something else.”

It’s certainly not the first time someone has critiqued the British superstar’s songwriting, and with Sheeran recently announcing plans to release at least five more albums in the coming years, it won’t be the last. In March, he appeared on The Tonight Show and revealed that his next album, Play — for which “Azizam” serves as the lead single — will be followed by LPs titled Pause, Rewind, Fast-Forward and Stop.

The series mirrors the sequence of Sheeran’s first five albums, which fit a mathematics theme: + (2011), x (2014), ÷ (2017), = (2021) and – (2023). And though critics such as Zachary may not be a fan of the musician’s catalog, a lot of other people are; all five of the aforementioned LPs reached the top 5 of the Billboard 200, while nine songs spread out across those albums have charted in the Billboard Hot 100‘s top 10.

See The Swiftologist’s review of “Azizam” — and look for Sheeran’s comment — below.

After two decades of snipes and barbed words traded back and forth, Madonna and Sir Elton John are here to report a groundbreaking piece of news — their feud is apparently over.
In a photo posted to her Instagram on Monday (April 7), the “Material Girl” singer is giving the “Rocket Man” star a side-hug, and reported that she and the star are on the same page at long last. “We Finally Buried the Hatchet!!!” Madonna wrote in her caption. “I went to see @eltonjohn perform on SNL this weekend!! WOW.”

In the caption, Madonna revealed that seeing one of John’s shows when she was in high school “changed the course of my life,” helping her realize that she wanted to become a pop sensation. So, when John publicly expressed his disdain for her, she says she felt wounded. “I had always felt like an outsider growing up and watching him on stage helped me to understand that it was OK to be different —to stand out — to take the road, less traveled by,” she wrote. “Over the decades it hurt me to know that someone I admired so much shared his dislike of me publicly as an artist. I didn’t understand it.”

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The pair’s feud officially started in 2002, when John said that Madge’s “Die Another Day” was “the worst Bond tune ever” and that the track “hasn’t got a tune.” He continued to throw digs at the pop singer at the 2004 Q Awards, where he lambasted her winning the best live act award at the ceremony. “Madonna, best live act? F— off. Since when has lip-synching been live?” he asked. “I think everyone who lip-synchs on stage in public when you pay, like, 75 quid to see them should be shot.”

The feud escalated in 2012, when both Madonna and John were up for best original song at the 69th annual Golden Globes — Madonna for “Masterpiece” from W.E., and John for “Hello, Hello” from Gnomeo & Juliet. When Madonna eventually won the award, John’s husband, David Furnish, blasted her win on his Facebook account, claiming that her victory showed the awards had “nothing to do with merit.” Madonna, for her part, reacted to John and Furnish’s comments backstage, saying “[John]’s been known to get mad at me, so I don’t know. He’s brilliant, and I adore him, so he’ll win another award. I don’t feel bad.”

But on her latest Instagram post, Madonna revealed that when she went to go visit with John backstage at SNL on Saturday (April 5), the “Your Song” singer was immediately apologetic. “I needed to go backstage and confront him. When I met him, the first thing out of his mouth was, ‘Forgive Me’ and the wall between us fell down,” she wrote. “Forgiveness is a powerful tool. Within minutes. We were hugging.”

Madge even revealed that this reconciliation could potentially bear fruit. “Then he told me had written a song for me and he wanted to collaborate. It was like everything came full circle,” she wrote. “And you can tell everybody , This is Your Song……….”

John thanked Madonna for “forgiving me and my big mouth” in the comments of the post, highlighting her work as an activist for the fight against HIV and AIDS as one of the many reasons he admires her. “I’m not proud of what I said. Particularly when I think about all the groundbreaking work you have done as an artist,” he wrote. “I’m grateful we can move forward.”

The star added that he hoped the two of them could serve as an example to people around the world of what reconciliation looks like in a divided political landscape. “I’m increasingly distressed by all the divisiveness in our world at the moment. Both you and I have wholeheartedly been accepted and embraced by communities who are under threat around the world,” he wrote. “By pulling together, I’m hopeful that we can make great things happen for those who really need support.”