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Ed Sheeran‘s love for India sparkles on his new song “Sapphire,” which dropped alongside an adventurous music video Thursday (June 5).
On the effervescent dance track, the British pop star mixes percussion elements of traditional Indian music with his signature absurdly catchy melodies, singing about never wanting to stop dancing with a lover whose aura shimmers just like the blue diamond for which the song is named.
“We are surrounded but I can only see/ The lights, your face, your eyes/ Exploding like fireworks in the sky,” Sheeran sings on the song.
Adding flair to the recording are vocals and sitar provided by Indian artist Arijit Singh, who also appears with the four-time Grammy winner in the “Sapphire” music video. Filmed across various locations in India during Sheeran’s tour through the country earlier this year, the visual keeps the English musician in the center of the frame as he walks through bustling streets, explores beaches, visits tourist spots, hangs out with locals and sings with a team of youth soccer players.
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His companion in those sites is often Singh, with whom Sheeran sings in Punjabi, “ਚਮ-ਚਮ ਚਮਕੇ ਸਿਤਾਰੇ ਵਰਗੀ” — which translates to “They sparkle just like stars,” according to YouTube’s captions.
“‘Sapphire’ was the first song I finished for Play that made me know where the album was heading,” wrote the “A Team” singer in a statement, referring to his September-slated LP. “It’s why I finished the recording process in Goa surrounded by some of the best musicians in India.”
“The final jigsaw piece for me was getting Arijit on the record,” he continued. “Me and him have done a full Punjabi version of the song that will come out in the next few weeks, which has a lot more of him on it. This is the album version of the song, and my favorite song on the album. Hope you guys love it.”
“Sapphire” follows previous Play singles “Azizam” and “Old Phone,” the latter of which dropped at the beginning of May. Arriving Sept. 12, the new album will serve as the first in Sheeran’s next series of LPs, marking a departure from his yearslong mathematics-themed saga.
“Play was an album that was made as a direct response to the darkest period of my life,” he recently wrote on Instagram. “Coming out of all of that I just wanted to create joy and technicolor, and explore cultures in the countries I was touring. It’s a real rollercoaster of emotions from start to finish, it encapsulates everything that I love about music, and the fun in it, but also where I am in life as a human, a partner, a father.”
Watch the “Sapphire” music video above.
aespa unleashed a molten teaser for their upcoming single “Dirty Work” on Wednesday (June 4). The 28-second clip keeps the actual sound of the song a secret until its release on June 27 at midnight EST/1 p.m. KST, but its animation promises that fans can expect whatever the K-pop girl group is cooking up with […]
After several false starts, summer finally seems to have settled in. That means music festivals, various carnival celebrations, and the search for a song of the summer are in full effect.
May featured album releases from dancehall stars like Valiant (Prove Them Wrong) and Ding Dong (From Ding Dong to World Ding), but the month’s buzziest news story arrived in its very last weekend. Vybz Kartel, who recently announced his first world tour in over 20 years, and Moliy, whose global Afro-dancehall smash “Shake It to the Max” recently entered the Billboard Hot 100, were both set to play Trinidad’s One Caribbean Music Festival on May 31. However, due to “non-fullfilment of contractual obligations,” as per Kartel’s management, the King of Dancehall pulled out of the festival just hours before he was set to hit the stage. According to Kartel’s team, the dancehall titan did not receive his full payment before the festival took place.
“Vybz Kartel was formally contracted to perform at [One Caribbean Music Festival] 2025 for a total sum of $1.35 million. To date, $950,000 has been paid directly to the [artist], while an additional $150,000 was disbursed to his legal representative,” the promoter explained. “The remaining balance due was made available in full; however, due to legal and financial regulations in Trinidad and Tobago, the organisers were unable to disburse the final amount in cash.”
As for Moliy, the Ghanaian-American singer pulled out of the event, citing the promoter’s failures to meet “key contractual obligations.”
“Moliy arrived in Trinidad ready and excited to perform, but since landing, her team has not received any communication from the festival organizers,” her management team explained in a press release. “Combined with their failure to meet key contractual obligations, this has made it impossible for the performance to proceed.”
Nonetheless, One Caribbean Music Festival continued as planned, with performances from artists such as Chronic Law, Rvssian and Sizzla Kalonji.
Outside of that festival kerfuffle, Caribbean artists are enjoying a particularly notable moment in the live entertainment space. Beenie Man headlined a blockbuster show at Long Island’s UBS Arena on May 24, and Bounty Killer will headline Brooklyn’s Barclays Center next month (July 5), underscoring Caribbean music’s transition to arena-headlining status in the 2020s.
Naturally, Billboard’s monthly Reggae/Dancehall Fresh Picks column will not cover every last track, but our Spotify playlist — which is linked below — will expand on the 10 highlighted songs. So, without any further ado:
Freshest Find: Asa Bantan, “God Is Good”
Disclosure will perform a run of North American live shows this fall, the duo announced Thursday (June 5.) The newly announced shows piggyback a run of previously announced DJ sets from the Lawrence brothers. The newly announced shows include dates at both indoor and outdoor venues, including Forest Hills in New York, the Santa Barbara […]
Timbaland has launched his own AI entertainment company called Stage Zero and its first signee is the artist TaTa. Co-founded with Rocky Mudaliar and Zayd Portillo, Stage Zero’s first signee is an AI pop artist called TaTa, driven by Suno AI. The pop artist, along with a bevy of AI-driven creative tools will all be […]
Hey, pigs! All of our dreams practically came true when Nine Inch Nails announced in January that the band was hitting the road for the Peel It Back world tour in 2025. (“Practically,” because some of us are still awaiting that new album announcement.) It didn’t take long after the news arrived for fans to […]
A day ahead of El Clásico, Travis Scott made his debut in Barcelona with a thrilling concert on May 10, which Spotify has now turned into a short film. Spotify Presents: Travis Scott Live From Barcelona arrived on the streaming service’s platform on Thursday (June 5) about a month after Scott hit the Spanish stage […]
1D has hit 1B — again. More than a decade after its release, the music video for One Direction‘s “Night Changes” has surpassed a billion views on YouTube, marking the band’s fourth visual to reach the milestone. Directed by Ben Winston and posted in November 2014, the “Night Changes” music video gave fans the chance […]
It’s not every day that a roomful of music industry executives keeps quiet during a party.
But Billboard’s annual Country Power Players Party celebrating the leaders in the genre, hosted June 4 at Category 10 in Downtown Nashville at Category 10, yielded respectful silence as a series of emotional moments highlighted the importance of health initiatives in the business.
Music Health Alliance founder Tatum Allsep challenged the industry to help financially in meeting the increasing mental health needs of the creative community as she accepted the Impact award from Brothers Osborne. Billboard country chart manager Jim Asker announced plans to step down from his position on Aug. 15, citing health issues, as Christian artist Lauren Daigle presented him with a farewell commemorative Billboard cover. And Little Big Town applied precision harmony to the poignant “Rich Man” as the band picked up the inaugural Ben Vaughn Song Champion award from songwriter Liz Rose (“Girl Crush,” “You Belong With Me”). The Song Champion hardware is named for the former Warner Music Nashville president/CEO, who died in January at only 49.
Vaughn “has left an indelible mark on our hearts,” LBT’s Karen Fairchild said, acknowledging his daughter, who attended the event. “I don’t feel at all worthy to talk about your dad, other than to just say that we miss him, and I know you do, and we’re here for you. You have a community of people here that will stand by you forever. All you do is just reach out and you tell us what you need, because that’s what your dad always did for us.”
Following a welcome by Melinda Newman, Billboard‘s executive editor of West Coast and Nashville, rising country artist Reyna Roberts hosted the Power Players Party, which included a surprise appearance by Garth Brooks, who handed the prestigious country executive of the year trophy to AEG/Goldenvoice executive vp Stacy Vee, recognizing her contributions to the high-profile Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio, Calif.
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Brooks portrayed Vee as an underdog in a male-dominated industry.
“In this business, like so many businesses, a female needs to work 1000 times harder than a male to get a tenth as much as the male gets,” Brooks said. “That’s just how it always has been. The blessing on that – I think that’s what makes Dolly Parton, Dolly Parton. I think that’s what – and I was firsthand watching this – makes Reba McEntire, Reba McEntire. You can’t outwork her, right? I’m married to one of the greatest singers of any format (Trisha Yearwood). I watch her every day work 1000 times harder than me to get a 10th as much as they give me. So with that, I think that kind of describes Stacy.”
BigXThaPlug scored the Innovator award, presented by Shaboozey just weeks after topping the Hot Country Songs chart dated April 19 with “All The Way,” a rap-and-country hybrid featuring guest Bailey Zimmerman from his forthcoming collaborations project.
“X is someone who didn’t just break the mold,” Shaboozey enthused. “He melted it down and made it his own.”
Ella Langley snagged the trailblazer award, presented by Lainey Wilson, while Riley Green – who collaborated on Langley’s “you look like you love me” – was handed the groundbreaker award by Ronnie Dunn, one-half of the duo Brooks & Dunn.
“Any wisdom that has been passed along to me from the women in the business, I’ve tried to share it with Ella, and Ella seems like she’s all ears,” Wilson told the crowd. “She wants to listen. She wants to know more and do more and be more, and that’s what makes her just a superstar. I’m proud of Ella, not just for being the trailblazing artist that she is, but for the heart that she’s got to go with it.”
Asker announced his intention to pass the torch on the influential Billboard country chart position while recounting challenges he’s faced as a stage IV non-Hodgkins cancer survivor.
“They didn’t think I’d make it through the first two weeks in the hospital,” Asker recalled.
He beat those odds and subsequently ran 15 26.2-mile marathons, raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. He expects to continue teaching writing classes at Columbia State Community College in Tennessee, and to study for another degree.
Music Health Alliance, meanwhile, has made assisting cancer patients and other members of the music community its non-profit mission. In the 12 years since its inception, the organization has reportedly benefited more than 32,000 people and saved the industry more than $145 million in health care costs. That’s particularly noteworthy; the majority of music-industry workers are independently contracted and historically face greater difficulty accessing insurance than corporate-employed staff.
T.J. Osborne hailed Allsep as “Nashville’s very own Mother Teresa.” Allsep, in turn, sought to motivate the movers and shakers in the room to step up their game in an increasingly difficult emotional period.
“In the last few months, MHA has seen a 250% increase in requests for mental health support,” she noted. “Y’all, that’s not a statistic. That’s a screaming flare. It is a fucking S.O.S. call, and we have got to do better.”
“We’ve got to have a plan for the long haul,” she continued, noting the MHA’s new mental health initiative in partnership with Universal Music Group. We know that music heals, but even the healers need healing. So here’s the ask to every label, to every publisher, to every platform, to every artist, everybody who makes a living in this industry: please don’t just admire the mission and the impact. Feel it. Fuel it. Fund it. We so desperately need you to stand with us, to nurture the noise, and then we can truly heal the music.”
Erykah Badu has announced that she’ll be dropping music later this summer on her own record label, Control FREAQ Records. Having been with Motown since at least 2007, this newly independent venture is a huge deal for Badu. The neo-soul pioneer established Control FREAQ Records in 2005, representing her “desire to foster creativity and innovation […]
