Ed Sheeran & Elton John Are Releasing A Charity Christmas Single

Ed Sheeran and Sir Elton John have teamed up for a brand new Christmas song.

On Monday, Nov. 29, the pair announced that their festive track, titled “Merry Christmas”, will be available to purchase and stream as of Friday, Dec. 3. It was also revealed that all UK profits from the new song during this year’s Christmas period will go to the Ed Sheeran Suffolk Music Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

The singer-songwriters announced their yuletide track with a Love Actually-inspired video that recreated an iconic scene from the 2003 film in which Andrew Lincoln declares his love for Kiera Knightley with a series of cards.

During the social media clip, Sheeran knocks on the door of Elton’s home holding a series of signs that read, “Hello, last Christmas I received a call from my mate Elton John and he told me we should do a Christmas song.”

The signs continue on to say, “And I replied, ‘Yeah. Maybe in 2022.’ But I actually wrote the chorus that day. And here we are. Our Christmas song, ‘Merry Christmas’, is out this Friday. Go pre-order and save it now. It has sleigh bells. A lot of them...”

In a follow-up social media post, the pair also revealed that the music video for “Merry Christmas” will also drop on Friday, Dec. 3, along with a short teaser clip featuring Sheeran and Elton, as well as celebrity cameos from the likes of The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins, Jonathan Ross, and Michael McIntyre, among others.

During the short video, which appears to be inspired by iconic Christmas music videos from the past, the duo also tease a short snippet of the song, that features the lyrics, “Filled up with so much love/ All our family and friends are together where we all belong/ Merry Christmas, everyone.”

Per Billboard, Sheeran opened up about his experience working with Elton on the track during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

“I’ve always been quite against [doing a Christmas song]. Not that I don’t like Christmas, I love Christmas, but in terms of doing a Christmas song, you need to chuck the kitchen sink at it,” the “Bad Habits” hitmaker told Fallon, revealing that he was “baffled” to discover that there isn’t already a festive song titled “Merry Christmas.”

“It’s kind of like this glitch in a video game where no one’s thought to,” he added.