Ed Sheeran has delivered some unique performances during the course of his career, but playing his new track “Shape of You” on child’s classroom instruments, backed by Jimmy Fallon and the Roots, is arguably right up there.
Keeping time with a banana-shaped shaker, Sheeran sings the tune in the “Tonight Show” music room for Monday’s episode, with Fallon and The Roots grabbing instruments to bash out a joyful noise.
Sheeran, 26, is the latest in a long line of music artists to pick up rudimentary instruments for “The Tonight Show” in what is becoming one of the show’s most popular bits, following in the footsteps of such talents as Adele, Mariah Carey, Idina Mensel, One Direction, Metallica and even the cast of “Sesame Street”.
While “Shape of You” is shaping up to be Sheeran’s biggest hit to date, the singer revealed in an interview with BBC Radio 1 that he almost wound up giving the song to Rihanna.
“[‘Shape of You’] is actually a really random one because I went in to write songs for other people with a guy called Steve Mac and Johnny McDaid, and we were writing this song and I was like, ‘This would really work for Rihanna,'” said Sheeran. “And then I started singing lyrics like, ‘Putting Van The Man on the jukebox’ and I was like, ‘Well, she’s not really going to sing that, is she?’ And then we sort of decided halfway through that we were just going to make it for me.”
