Ed Sheeran has released the first wave of fan-made music videos from his latest record, Autumn Variations.
Sheeran held a global competition for his fanbase, Sheerios, to submit music videos to be used as the official music videos for the record. Over 4,000 music videos were submitted from 75 countries. The final 14 picks were personally picked by Sheeran, from the following countries: Ireland, United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, The Netherlands, United States, Brazil, Germany, Japan, France, New Zealand, Taiwan, Mexico, and India.
A statement from Warner Music about the competition shares that the contest, “continues the execution of Ed’s initial vision for ‘Autumn Variations’ as an album for the fans and by the fans as he spotlights their artistry.”
Yesterday, three out of 14 videos were uploaded, including the videos for “Midnight” by Meg Igarashi from Japan; “That’s On Me” by Brazilian fan Beatriz Santamaria Pinha; and “American Town” by Michael Lamhang of the United States. Today, Sheeran released the videos for “Spring” by Clara Girot of France, and “When Will I Be Alright” by Karina Yang from Taiwan.
In the description of the video for “Spring,” Girot wrote, “In this music video, I bring my Autumn Variations vinyl to life, in my crazy Parisian way of living. With fun and unexpected sequences, this object symbolizes our feelings, getting more and more damaged, and repaired through life. When nothing seems right, but you still push through life and find comfort in friendship at the end. This is a creative expression of the emotions I felt listening to this album, on an object I love, in a city I love.”
“When life hits you with an immovable obstacle, you can only look around standing still. But if you continue to move forward, you may open new doors from an unexpected detour. Life is filled with constant change, a truth magnified when we embarked on our studying abroad journey to the United States from Taiwan. It took a while to get our lives together,” shares Yang.
“We miss home, but every time we take a step forward, we find pillars of love and support in little corners in life. From our family, friends, or the companionship of a pet, to shared experiences with strangers and lyrics of a song, they give us courage to look ahead. When life is challenging, we hope we can enjoy a detour and know that it will be alright.”
Sheeran’s Autumn Variations album was released last September and is his ninth full-length project so far. In an Instagram post announcing the record, Sheeran wrote, “Last autumn, I found that my friends and I were going through so many life changes. After the heat of the summer, everything either calmed, settled, fell apart, came to a head or imploded…When I went through a difficult time at the start of last year, writing songs helped me understand my feelings and come to terms with what was going on, and when I learned about my friend’s different situations, I wrote songs, some from their perspectives, some from mine, to capture how they and I viewed the world at that time.”
Listen to Autumn Variations below.