"We left him in 2018" — Internet reacts to Ed Sheeran announcing new single 'Old Phone' out this week
On Wednesday, April 30, @PopCrave shared a tweet about Ed Sheeran announcing his new single, titled Old Phone.
The song is going to be the second single from Sheeran's upcoming album, which is confirmed to be named Play. It comes three weeks after Ed dropped the album's first single, Azizam.
The tweet has since gone viral, receiving more than 127K views and 3K likes within hours of its upload. Netizens have reacted to it, with one of them commenting:
"we left him in 2018"
Some netizens criticized the Perfect singer by claiming that he lacked diversity and that his new song was going to be "the same".
"We won’t be streaming," commented an X user.
"is gonna be the same song all over again," added another one.
"Girl byee y he still makin music," wrote a third netizen.
Meanwhile, others appeared excited about Old Phone, and claimed they couldn't wait "to hear the tea."
"We will be streaming!" posted a fourth one.
"From love letters to missed calls—Sheeran’s dialing straight into nostalgia," replied a fifth user.
"Is Ed Sheeran the best male pop artist out right now?" asked a sixth one.
"Ed's got a song about his burner phone - can't wait to hear the tea," commented a seventh netizen.
Ed Sheeran launched a new Instagram account ahead of Old Phone's release
Ahead of the release of Old Phone, Ed Sheeran launched a new Instagram account with the username @teddysoldphone. The bio of the nostalgic handle simply reads: "I found my old phone today". Sheeran's old phone retired in 2015, with the contents of the new account being older than that.
The account, which already has 149K followers and 210 posts, is filled with intimate moments from the Shivers singer's life and career, including memories of himself and his wife, Cherry, in the early stage of them dating, a selfie with Harry Styles at the 2012 London Olympics, BTS snaps with Talyor Swift, Calvin Harris, and One Direction.
In the caption of one of the posts, Ed Sheeran wrote:
"It felt like a time capsule, a time of life that I was in, and living at that time in 2015. Turning it on really spun me out, I found myself scrolling messages and conversations with people who are no longer here... I found old photos of me with people I was so close to then, but we’ve lost touch since. The whole experience was such an emotional journey."
In another post, Sheeran also talked about the story behind his upcoming song, writing:
"I wrote the song Old Phone on my own at 2am whilst jet lagged in India finishing the album, and recorded it that morning. It feels like a song that should’ve been on my debut album, but also a song I couldn’t have written until I experienced real life things happening to me."
Ed concluded by saying that he hoped the song found "some emotion" in the listeners, making them switch on their old phone and look at where they were a decade ago.
Ed Sheeran's account also has touching moments of the Photograph singer with his late friends and collaborators, Mac Miller and Jamal Edwards, and a message from his father, where he expressed pride at watching Sheeran share a stage with Stevie Wonder.
