Ed Sheeran's Divide tour has the highest gross and most tickets sold of any single-year tour in Pollstar's three-decade history. Photo: Ben Watts
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Ed Sheeran reflects on his childhood, musical development and creative challenges in a new trailer for Apple Music’s Songwriter, an upcoming documentary about the pop star, out August 28th.
The documentary was filmed over a decade, as Sheeran’s filmmaker cousin Murray Cummings followedthe singer on tours and in recording studios. The trailer incorporates footage of a young Sheeran playing cello, bass, guitar and drums ”“ then flashes forward to the songwriter meeting a critical early influence, his school music teacher.
The preview focuses primarily on the writing and recording of Sheeran’s third LP, 2017’s ÷, incorporating footage of regular collaborators Benny Blanco, Julia Michaels, Foy Vance, Johnny McDaid and Amy Wadge.
“The album is the peak of my songwriting and musical ability,” Sheeran says in the clip. “It might be that I never get this again. The last two albums were building up to something. This one, it definitely feels magical.”
In a statement about Songwriter, Sheeran praised Cummings’ film as “brilliantly [documenting] the hard work and DNA that goes into creating a song from start to finish.”
Cummings said he “decided to make something different” with the project. “I wasn’t going to show fame. I didn’t want paparazzi, screaming fans or big stadiums. I didn’t want to have sit down interviews because I didn’t want to tell the audience how something came to be; I just wanted to show them. And I wanted the focus to be the songwriting.”
Songwriter debuted this year at the Berlin Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival. A theatrical release will follow on August 17th in New York, New York and August 24th in Los Angeles, California.
