Ed Sheeran learned Spanish for a batch of new songs with Latin superstar J Balvin.
The ‘Shape of You’ hitmaker and the Colombian reggaeton spent a day in the studio after bonding over lunch and afternoon tea – a British tradition – and fans are set to hear the first two tracks they recorded together, ‘Sigue’ and ‘Forever My Love’, shortly.
Ed tweeted: “I met J Balvin in a gym in New York last year.
“I recognised his voice when he was on the phone so I just went up and said hi.
“We chatted so long we ended up having lunch and then afternoon tea. Then just went to being mates who chatted non-stop.”
The 31-year-old Grammy winner – who previously learned Italian for a version of his song ‘Perfect’ featuring Andrea Bocelli – admitted it was “a proper challenge” getting to grips with the Spanish language.
He added: “I was in New York at Christmas for shows so we decided to have one day in the studio.
“That led to so much more, which you’ll find out about soon.
“But the first two songs we wrote are Sigue and Forever My Love, they are out soon.
“He wanted to bring me into his world, and I wanted to bring him into mine. It was a proper challenge learning Spanish for this.”
The pair have also filmed at least one music video for the songs together.
However, instead of somewhere sunny in Spain, he and the 36-year-old star opted for the French capital in winter.
Speaking at the BRIT Awards in February, Ed said: “I’m getting up at 5.30am to go to Paris tomorrow. I’m shooting a video with J Balvin.”
Ed recently explained that he has planned lots of collaborations for this year because being a solo artist can be a “lonely” experience.
He explained: “This year is actually going to end up being busier than last year, which I’m really excited about. There’s a lot coming out.
“I’ve wanted to span genres. I had a load of people hit me up in different genres, ranging from metal to drill music, and I just said yes to everything. It’s been a really interesting collaborative process.”
The ‘Bad Habits’ hitmaker has plans to work with a number of big-name artists, as he continues to push his own boundaries.
And the ‘Thinking Out Loud’ hitmaker – who has previously collaborated with the likes of Stormzy, Taylor Swift, Bring Me The Horizon and Camila Cabello – admits it’s “quite exciting” to join forces with other musicians.
He added: “It’s quite lonely being a solo artist sometimes and it’s quite exciting, like I did a session this morning at 7am with a guy called Kodak Black who’s from America and after that I did a session with a guy called Kwengface who’s from Peckham.”