Ed Sheeran has announced the end of his break from music, with new material arriving on Friday.
The singer-songwriter, 25, posted a video on Twitter in which he waves to fans while smiling and holding up a piece of white A4 paper with the words “New music coming Friday!!” scrawled on it.
He then puts the sheet of paper in his mouth and drops it.
Hello 2017... pic.twitter.com/1UyjpgoFbo
— Ed Sheeran (@edsheeran) January 1, 2017
The star announced a year ago that he was “taking a break… to travel the world and see everything I missed”, but promised fans he would be back with his third album, which he called “the best thing I have made so far”.
He also announced he would disappear from “my phone, emails and all social media for a while”, saying he had started to “see the world… through a screen and not my eyes”.
The Thinking Out Loud singer recently returned to social media, with a light blue picture posted on his Instagram and Twitter profiles, prompting speculation that new music was on the way.
He also wrote this year’s X Factor winner’s single, When Christmas Comes Around, which debuted at number three in the charts.
Ed’s news has made a lot of people feel better about 2017.
2017 is already better than 2016 if Ed Sheeran is coming back
— Emily Atkins (@EmilyAtkins_) January 1, 2017
I LITERALLY SCREAMED OVER A NINE SECOND VIDEO OF ED SHEERAN SAYING NOTHING.
— sara (@thisbemesara) January 1, 2017
@edsheeran YOU SAVED 2017
— janet (@titaniclarrie) January 1, 2017
Ed Sheeran is back...can't wait to hear the new tunesssss! #genuis
— Sam Lavery (@SamLavery_) January 1, 2017
Ed gave his first official return performance in a charity gig at the Natural History Museum at the end of November, days after it was reported that Princess Beatrice had accidentally cut him on the face when a party prank went wrong as she was pretending to “knight” singer James Blunt with a ceremonial sword.
Showing off a scar on his cheek, Ed told the audience: ”It’s nice to be back. I’ve had a whole year off. I went to Japan for about a month and hung out with Japanese people. Got my face cut open, anyone read about that?”
