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Ed Sheeran and Elton John team up for 'Merry Christmas' single - watch the super festive music video
3 December 2021, 09:51 | Updated: 16 November 2022, 16:18
Ed Sheeran and Elton John have unveiled their festive new single, and it's a big contender for this year's Christmas number one.
The two pals have teamed up for the song 'Merry Christmas', and you can watch the full music video below.
The super festive music video sees the duo pay homage to several Christmas classics, including Wham!'s 'Last Christmas', East 17's 'Stay Another Day', Wizzard's 'I Wish It Could be Christmas Everyday', 'Merry Christmas Everyone' by Shakin' Stevens, and Bing Crosby & David Bowie's 'Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy'.
There's even a call-back to Ed's own 'Perfect' video, and a nod to LadBaby's Christmas number one success.
Royalties from the single and profits from sales will be donated equally between the Ed Sheeran Suffolk Music Foundation & The Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Ed recently spilled the beans that the two friends had been working on a Christmas single together.
"Elton rang me on Christmas Day to say Merry Christmas," Ed said.
"Elton rings me almost every single day. He said, 'Step Into Christmas' is Number 6 in the charts! I want to do another Christmas song – will you do it with me?"
Ed Sheeran & Elton John - Merry Christmas [Official Video]
Elton later confirmed all the details earlier this week with a post on Twitter featuring Ed doing that famous doorstep scene from Richard Curtis's Christmas movie Love Actually.
"Just under a year ago, I called @edsheeran to see if he wanted to make a Christmas single with me and now it’s nearly here!" Elton said.
"‘Merry Christmas’ will be out Fri 3 Dec with all proceeds from this year’s Christmas period going to the Ed Sheeran Suffolk Music Foundation & @ejaf🎄☃️🎄"
Elton John is no stranger to Christmas hits. His classic single 'Step Into Christmas' peaked at number 24 in 1973 and has since become a perennial seasonal favourite. It later got as high as the top 10 in recent years.
Ed Sheeran and Elton John promote new Christmas single in Love Actually-inspired clip
Meanwhile, Ed has already scored a Christmas number one with 2017's 'Perfect', so could Elton finally get one himself?
Ed opened up about the duet and his friendship with Elton in the first episode of Smooth's Famous Firsts podcast.
Speaking to Jenni Falconer, he said: "From the beginning, he’s been a mentor, from the beginning he’s been like 'anytime you want to call me, anytime you need advice'...
"American radio wouldn’t play me, so he flew over there to play a private gig for them, to make sure that they play me. And the Grammys wouldn’t put me on, so he made sure he played the Grammys with me to have me on.
"He’s just, throughout my career he’s been the guy that has nudged it an extra inch. And now I’m in a point in my career where I feel like not equals but, cause he’s had such a long career, but I ring literally on a daily basis, like literally every single day, even if it’s for two minutes.
"He’s my favourite human and it’s so rare to find people in the music industry that are just clean hearted, there’s like no bad energy around him."
