Ed Sheeran reveals how Aashiqui 2 led him to Arijit Singh, recalls scooting around village to watch sunset with him

Ed Sheeran recalled how he exactly got to know about Arijit Singh and shared memories from his visit to West Bengal.

Ed Sheeran recently teamed up with Arijit Singh for his new track Sapphire. Just three days after its release, the British singer opened up about how he first met Arijit, fondly recalling his visit to the Indian singer’s hometown in West Bengal, where they spent time together watching sunsets and the moon. (Also Read: Ed Sheeran drops new song Sapphire with desi beats, Arijit Singh vocals. All Shah Rukh Khan fans care about is his cameo)

Ed Sheeran and Arijit Singh wandering in the streets of West Bengal.

Ed Sheeran on how he met Arijit Singh

Ed took to Instagram and, sharing a clip of himself riding a scooty through the streets of West Bengal with Arijit, he wrote, “I first became aware of @arijitsingh’s music when I watched Aashiqui 2 and heard Tum Hi Ho. I was proper spellbound by his voice, the song, the scene in the movie. I checked him out, and got in touch, and said whenever you wanna sing together, I'm down. He was playing London, so I went with him as a guest and sang Perfect there—it was an incredible show. I played him an early version of Sapphire in the dressing room, and he instantly had ideas for instruments and melodies. We then were pen pals over email for a bit, until I was in India for the tour.”

Ed Sheeran on visiting Arijit Singh's hometown

He then recalled visiting Arijit's hometown and wrote. “I said to him, we should finish this in person, and he said, please come to my hometown so I can show you my home and culture. I was with my dad on tour, which is a rarity to get so much one-on-one time with him. Me and him got a flight to Kolkata, then a five-and-a-half-hour drive to his hometown. We arrived, went on a barge down the river—which was stunning—then got a scooty back to the studio where we finished the song.”

Ed Sheeran heaps praise on Arijit Singh

Ed further recalled Arijit teaching him Punjabi, adding, “Arijit taught me Punjabi and how to pronounce it all properly, and showed me sitar. We then had dinner, and scooted around the village to see the sunset and moon with my dad. It was a proper core memory I'll always cherish with my father, and I'm honoured to have created in this way with Arijit. He's one of the most talented humans I’ve ever met, and I'm so grateful he shared his talent with me for this song. The full Punjabi version we recorded will be out in a couple of weeks, but until then I’ll be drip-feeding fun videos from our time together. Enjoy!”

As Ed finally dropped the three-minute video of Sapphire—a song he had been teasing for a while—what caught fans' attention was Shah Rukh Khan singing the lyrics. Ed had previously teased the desi beats and the line “Cham cham sitaare warghi.” In a recent post about the song, Ed wrote “love that guy” referring to Shah Rukh, and called Arijit “the final jigsaw piece” of his song.