Ed Sheeran releases “Eyes Closed” Friday, March 24, which will officially launch his next music era.

The track, as he previously revealed, is about grappling with the death of his friend Jamal Edwards. Ed explained the music video will further illustrate his grief by allowing it to physically manifest as a furry blue monster that follows him around.

“When I was thinking of concepts for the Eyes Closed music video I wanted to make a video inspired by movies like Harvey, where the main character has an imaginary friend who’s a giant rabbit that no one can see,” he wrote on Instagram while sharing a brief teaser of the upcoming film. “There’s also a book I read my daughters where sadness is encapsulated by an imaginary creature.”

He continued, “Often sadness is something that follows you around, engulfing the rooms you’re in, and you can feel and see it, but no one else around you can. So I decided to create my own big blue monster for the video.”

The singer explained the monster only “gets bigger and bigger as the video goes on, til he takes up whole rooms, and is all I can see, just like sadness.”

Ed expressed how proud the music video makes him, adding, “I LOVE the big blue monster.” He apparently loves it so much it will “be popping up places and available soon.”

He didn’t elaborate on what he meant by that.

“Eyes Closed” will premiere Friday, March 24. It’s the first single to be released off his upcoming album, –, which is pronounced Subtract. That arrives May 5.

Edwards, a British music entrepreneur who is credited for launching Ed’s career, unexpectedly passed away in 2022. He was 31. 

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