One of Britain’s biggest artists, Ed Sheeran has returned with the first new music since his 2023 album Autumn Variations. In an exclusive interview with ITV News Entertainment Reporter, Rishi Davda, Sheeran said his new single ‘Azizam’ took inspiration from his Persian producer, Ilya Salmanzadeh.
"We were in the studio and he was like, ‘we should do something in my culture’. And yeah, he basically led the way." Sheeran told ITV News.
"I think as an artist, it’s quite hard to find new things and it it’s lovely to be sort of opened up into a world that I had not discovered before."
Speaking on an open top bus, Ed Sheeran also said recent copyright claims have changed the way he makes music. Like other contemporary artists Ed Sheeran has faced several copyright lawsuits in recent years. In 2017 Sheeran settled out of court claims relating to his song "Photograph," something he later said he regretted. Every claim against him since has been defended in court, with juries finding unanimously in his favour each time.
When he spoke outside a New York court after successfully defending his song "Thinking Out Loud," Sheeran said: "I am absolutely frustrated that baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all.
“If the jury had decided this matter the other way we might as well say goodbye to the creative freedom of songwriters.
“We need to be able to write our original music and engage in independent creativity without worrying at every step on the way that said creativity will be wrongly called into question.”
Sheeran admitted that following these copyright cases, he records all his studio sessions to avoid being accused of plagiarism.
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