Ed Sheeran and J Balvin Became Friends In a Gym and Eventually Made Music Together
Ed Sheeran and J Balvin both rose to fame in the 2010s with their hit songs and sold-out concerts around the world. As huge names in the music industry, Sheeran and Balvin are now two established stars, each with their own sound and take on their respective genres. It’s no surprise, then, that the two eventually met and worked on a song together. But they didn’t meet in the studio: the two artists first crossed paths in a gym together.
Ed Sheehan and J Balvin met at the gym
Sheeran shared the story of how he and Balvin met in a thread on Twitter.
“So I want to share something with you that I’ve been working on. I met J Balvin in a gym in New York last year,” Sheeran tweeted with a video of Sheeran and Balvin strumming guitars and singing into a camera. “It was just me and him very early in the morning. 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,” he continued. “Then just went to being mates who chatted non stop.”
Ed Sheeran and J Balvin made a song together
Sheeran then revealed that his quick new friendship with Balvin led to the creation of two new songs: “Sigue” and “Forever My Love.” “Sigue” sees Sheeran singing in Spanish for the first time.
“I was in New York at Christmas for shows so we decided to have one day in the studio that led to so 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, and I absolutely love them,” Sheeran tweeted proudly.
“He wanted to bring me into his world, and I wanted to bring him into mine,” Sheeran concluded. He admitted that it “was a proper challenge learning Spanish for this,” but he “had so much fun doing it.”
Their careers in 2022
Both Balvin and Sheeran have busy plans for 2022, as they’re both going on tour around several continents. In an interview with People, Balvin reflected on his career so far and lessons that he’s learned.
“You don’t learn anything from success because everything is just cool [in the beginning] and you’re starting to learn about success so you have failures — that’s when you learn,” he said. “It just a part of life, so that’s the way I can elevate myself every time. It’s something that is challenging — something that I know I can change, something that I think that I got to be better [at].”
Sheeran, meanwhile, has been balancing his new job of being a father with being a world-famous singer. He spoke about his relationship with his daughter Lyra, born in 2020, in a 2022 interview on the Australian talk show The Project.
“It’s made me want to get up early in the morning to have more time in the day,” Sheeran said honestly. “I get up at 5:30 a.m. with my daughter and we have breakfast.”
“My life has just shifted,” he added. “It’s a lot more wholesome and I get more out of the day.” He also spoke about them listening to vinyl records together and even becoming gym buddies of sorts. “I mean, she’s not doing weights or anything.”
