Indian Love Notes Infuse Ed Sheeran Music
By Romen Basu Borsellino | 24 Sep, 2025

Sheeran's respect and admiration for India and its musical motifs puts him in league with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

In an interview this week, “Shape of You” singer Ed Sheeran revealed that he had turned down an offer to become the first musician to ever perform a gig in space because the idea terrified him. 

But anyone who’s followed the red-headed British musician recently knows that he’s already spent considerable time in a place that some Westerners may find even more terrifying than space: India. 

A still of Sheeran in India from his new Sapphire music video

Sheeran has recently gone all-in on the biggest country in the South Asian subcontinent, whose culture and classic music traditions figure prominently in his new album “Play” released earlier this month. 

And while Ed Sheeran is certainly not the first musician to show love for India, his full-throated embrace of Indian culture shows a level of respect that only a few major Western artists have displayed for the country. 

Play

Any artist with international fame needs to be strategic about showing love to countries beyond their own.  For Sheeran that’s the UK, thought might as well be the US given our shared language.

Few would look at Sheeran’s 2025 tour schedule and bat an eye over the handful of public stops across India.  After all, he would be leaving money on the table to not spend some time in the world’s most populous country. 

But those who have paid closer attention to the buildup and release of Play might come to the same conclusion that I have: Ed Sheeran legitimately loves India.

Sheeran wasn’t treating his India stops like he would just any other generic leg of an ongoing tour.  He was bringing out known Indian musical talent like composer AR Rahman in Chennai and singer Shilpa Rao in Bengaluru to perform one of his songs entirely in the Telugu language.

When he wasn’t performing for tens of thousands of fans at sold out arenas, he was spotted busking on a street corner in Mumbai, getting a tattoo on his shin, or even recording most of the album itself in a studio along the beaches of Goa. 

His love of India manifests itself in different ways throughout the album. 

The hit single Sapphire — the word now tattooed on him in Punjabi — is anything but subtle in its  embrace of the country.  The song is, as many have called it, a love letter to India.

That’s immediately clear from the track’s collaboration with Punjabi musical titan Arijit Singh, who contributes vocals, instrumentals and more.

As a review from Music publication Euphoria states, “The percussive instruments, such as the dhol and the ghatam — as well as stringed instruments like the bouzouki, bansuri, and bamboo flute, made this track the big deal that I believe it is.

And then there’s the music video.

Shah Rukh Khan cameos in the Sapphire music video

The video, filmed exclusively in India, captures nearly every aspect of the country from its bustling markets to stunning beaches, ancient temples to modern eateries.  It’s got swanky clubs and remote villages.  Not to mention auto-rickshaws, cricket pitches, public buses and Ganges river boats.  And it features a cameo by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, who may very well be the most famous person in the world. 

It’s the equivalent of an Indian musician making a video in the US that features Times Square and an Iowa cornfield, a Red Sox game and a NASCAR race, Teslas and pickup trucks, and an appearance by Leonardo DiCaprio

And none of it went unnoticed by Indian music consumers. Sapphire’s accolades so far include: 

A number one debut on the Indian Music Industry’s (IMI) top 20 list, a position it still holds, number one debut on Apple Music and Amazon Prime Music in India as well as number one on Spotify India, making it the first English language to achieve that feat since 2021. I t also hit number two on Billboard India. 

And as of last week, 42% of the song’s international streams were coming from India.

But what’s interesting is that Sheeran’s latest album doesn’t simply pay homage to India in flashy tracks that are explicitly about Indian culture.  

For as in-your-face as Sapphire is in its Indian influence  — as is the song Symmetry, which includes tabla drums and a woman singing in Hindi — much of the album is far more understated.

One might never have known that tracks like Old Phone which Sheeran says he wrote in a jet-lagged stupor during his first few days in the country, or Don’t Look Down use Indian drums like the dhol.

Sheeran was clearly not using the instruments just to get credit for using them. 

It’s reminiscent of another famous British band.  Or two.

Sheeran on a motorbike in the Sapphire music video

The Beatles

The Beatles may very well be the most prominent example of a popular western band’s embrace of India.  In 1965, at the height of their fandom, the Beatles filmed the musical comedy “Help!” which featured a scene in an Indian restaurant in which a background actor was playing the sitar. 

Lead singer George Harrison became enamored by the instrument and classical Indian music in general.  He began studying under Indian musician Ravi Shankar, the most renowned authority on Indian classical music in recent history.

Shankar, the father of singer Norah Jones, had his reservations at first, later stating that “It is strange to see pop musicians with sitars.  I was confused at first. It had so little to do with our classical music.  When George Harrison came to me, I didn’t know what to think, but I found he really wanted to learn.”

Indian music, spirituality and culture became a defining characteristic of Harrison’s life and made their way into the Beatles' work as well.

Instruments like the sitar, tablas, and tambura became prominently featured in a number of their songs particularly on the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hart’s Club Band. 

In 1968 the Beatles and their romantic partners all travelled to Rishikesh, India to take a Transcendental Meditation course at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram.   A number of songs written during the retreat would ultimately comprise a bulk of their 1968 The White Album. 

That same year, George Harrisoin told Rolling Stone Magazine that “Till the day I die, I believe [Indian music] is the greatest music ever on our level of existence.”

And when he did die in 2001, his cremated remains were scattered throughout India.

Harrison’s devotion to Indian classic music arguably gave way to a snowball effect. 

A week after hearing Harrison play the sitar on the Beatles hit song Norwegian Wood Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones procured a sitar of his own and soon began studying to play it under Harish Rao, who was himself a pupil of Ravi Shankar. 

Jones' use of the sitar was a defining element of the Stones’ hit Paint It Black, which became the first song featuring the instrument to reach the top stop on the UK charts.  Paint It Black was the first number one song on UK charts to feature the instrument. 

Selena Gomez

Selena Gomez dons a red bindi at the 2013 MTV VMAs

A much more recent example of Indian classical music infused into mainstream Western pop and rock is Selena Gomez’s 2013 hit Come and Get It, which prominently features tablas and background vocals in Punjabi.

When Gomez debuted the song at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, she held nothing back.  The performance featured her dancing barefoot in the Indian tradition, donning Indian jewelry, and prominently sporting a red bindi on her forehead, all mirrored by a cadre of backup dancers. 

But unlike Sheeran — so far, at least — Gomez drew some criticism, particularly from conservative members of the Hindu community who blasted her for wearing a bindi while dancing in a way that they deemed overly promiscuous.

This is not the only time Hindu leaders have made that type of complaint.  They widely criticized 2024 best picture winner Oppenheimer for a scene that depicted the titular character reading from Hindu scripture while naked after just having sex.

Gomez, like Sheeran, expressed an appreciation for the Indian culture she sought to honor. "I think the song has that Hindu, tribal feel and I wanted to translate that. I’ve been learning about my chakra and bindis and the culture — it's beautiful."

After Play

Ed Sheeran is  not the first Western musician to fuse classical Indian music with his work. But while some may be doing so solely in an effort to court a greater market, Sheeran’s foray into Indian traditions seems born out of a genuine admiration of the culture.

It may be all the more notable given his red hair and particularly White complexion.  It’s wholly possible that Indians were gawking at him without even knowing he was a celebrity. 

It’s too early to tell if there will be future collaborations in India or if this is just a phase of his career.

Or, for that matter, if he intends to have his ashes scattered across the country.