Ed Sheeran’s new docu-series is full of contrasts, much like the essence of life.
The singer is fulfilling his goal by travelling the world and touching the lives of millions of fans with peaceful music one minute and savouring every beautiful moment of family life with his two children and his wife Cherry Seaborn, his high school sweetheart, the next.
The next thing he knows, he’s facing the risk of losing his partner while dealing with the loss of his best friend, music pioneer Jamal Edwards.
Ed isn’t one to usually advertise what’s going on in his private life, preferring to appear on social media when he’s releasing a new album before disappearing again.
So for the 32-year-old to open up in this way, allowing cameras to film some of his darkest moments from all angles, is an incredible act of bravery.
Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All is a new Disney Plus docu-series, with its name relating to the mathematical titles that the artist has given his first five studio albums: + (‘Plus’), × (‘Multiply’), ÷ (‘Divide’), = (‘Equals’), and − (‘Subtract’), the last of which comes out on Friday May 5 this year.
Each episode of the four-part series dives into a different facet of his life that has influenced him in recent years – Love, Loss, Focus, and Balance.
While the docu-series, like Ed’s work ethic, has been carefully carved out in a controlled manner, cut up into four neat quarters to make a whole, its contents emphasise how much of a messy whirlwind life can be when curveballs come flying out of nowhere.
Cherry was diagnosed with cancer in February 2022, when she was six months pregnant with their second child, when a tumour was discovered in her arm, with surgery having to wait until she had given birth.
Jamal died abruptly at the age of 31 that same month, leaving the music business, the thousands of individuals who actively followed his platform SBTV, his family, and his friends in sadness.
Because of the secret nature of their connection, Cherry will most likely surprise many Ed Sheeran fans with her very frank character.
In the programme, she expresses deep concern about her husband and the fact that he hasn’t taken the time he needs to process his grief and everything else that they have been through.
But, as the docu-series begins to reveal, Ed is a non-stop machine, constantly pressing the start button since his adolescence in order to realise his dreams of becoming a musician.
Everything comes to a climax in October 2022, when the singer sings at London’s Union Chapel in an intimate gig.
While the stage had always been his safe haven in the past, he ends up sobbing uncontrollably while speaking about Jamal’s death at the secret concert, having performed songs from his new album inspired by his late friend.
Ed is shown composing the song Eyes Closed off his fifth studio album, Subtract, which he initially began writing on a few years before, with visuals flickering between 2018 and 2022.
While the 2018 Ed is buoyant in his enthusiasm for the clever wordplay about what’sort of started off as a break-up song,’ the 2022 Ed is solemn in his approach, revealing that the reworked version of the song is inspired by the impact Jamal’s death had on him.
The repeated flashbacks between two separate times of the musician’s life, shot only four years apart, serve as a sobering reminder of the difficulties he’s encountered and the way he’s poured his heart and soul into his art as a coping technique.
‘It’s scary putting out your deepest, darkest thoughts to the world,’ he acknowledges, ahead of Subtract’s release.
While the docu-series is heartbreaking to watch, it is also full of hope.
It’s amazing to think about how far Ed has gone in the last decade, as he seemed to practically create his ambitions before seeing them come true.
Furthermore, seeing him collaborate with fellow music legends like his close friend Stormzy will undoubtedly please even his harshest critics.
When you strip away the glitz and glamour of being a popstar, the millions of people who have bought his records, and the screaming crowds who clamour for tickets to his concerts around the world, you have an artist who simply wants to make good music that connects with others, and does so time and time again.
Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All is streaming on Disney Plus from Wednesday May 3.
Source My Celebrity Life.
