Ed Sheeran Soars To Number One With ‘Eyes Closed’

Proving his chart-topping legacy once again, global powerhouse Ed Sheeran has knocked off Miley Cyrus’s ten-week reign at number one of ‘Flowers’ in the UK charts with his latest single ‘Eyes Closed’. The track discusses key themes of grief and acceptance in a delicate and sophisticated manner by discussing the visceral pain experienced after a friend has died.

‘Eyes Closed’ effectively symbolises the emotional struggles experienced by the singer and the desire to keep your “eyes closed” to shield yourself from reliving the pain of remembering a loved one has died.

The track illustrates the polarity of feeling overwhelmed by insurmountable grief and loneliness and how this is juxtaposed with a passionate desire to celebrate and champion the memory of the deceased through the medium of dancing.  In the chorus this sentiment is shared as they’re “Just dancin’ with my eyes closed / ‘Cause everywhere I look, I still see you”.

An underlining theme of beauty and bereavement being hand in hand is key to the optimistic, yet vulnerable connotations present in the track. Pairing these two emotions together allows the track to poignantly elaborate the themes of love and loss through using dancing as a lifeline during grief, as Sheeran reckons with the reality that he “lost more than my friend”.

 

‘Eyes Closed’ is the forty-first official top ten single released by the singer-songwriter, cementing Sheeran as the fifth artist to do so in official music chart history. The track is his fourteenth number-one single, with his title only beaten by The Beatles at seventeen singles and Elvis at twenty-one singles.

 

Sheeran’s sixth album ‘Subtract’, which features ‘Eyes Closed’, is available to pre-order now and will be released on May 5th 2023.

 

Alanya Smith

@AlanyaSmith

Image: ‘Eyes Closed’ Official Single Cover