Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran: Inside the decade long friendship

Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran have been friends for over a decade. 

Throughout that time their friendship has only strengthened and has seen them collaborate on music together, perform at each other’s shows, and attend glamorous awards shows together.

Last night (this morning AEST) Swift surprised her fans by bringing her longtime friend and collaborator on stage during her Eras Tour show in London.

Watch the video above.

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After the pair performed a mashup of Swift’s songs Everything Has Changed and Endgame (both of which Sheeran featured on) and Sheeran’s famous hit Thinking Out Loud, Swift took a moment to thank her friend for joining her on stage. 

“This is one of my best friends in the world to the point where I feel like he’s a second brother of mine,” she said as she pulled her fellow superstar musician into a hug.

“He’s probably so tired but he wanted to come and play for you and do this for all of us so give it up for Ed Sheeran,” she concluded as the crowd roared with cheers and applause.

This performance was the latest of plenty of sweet moments that the duo have shared since they first met and became friends over a decade ago.

Here is a look inside their sweet friendship.

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A budding friendship

Both big-time musicians who have gone on to achieve mammoth success in the music industry, it seems only fitting that Swift and Sheeran’s friendship bloomed after working together.

The pair first connected in 2012 to pen their collaboration song Everything Has Changed which featured on Swift’s Red album. 

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Despite their friendship quickly blossoming after they met, Sheeran has admitted that he was surprised to learn how nice she was. 

“I expected her to be one of these artists who is allowed to have a douchebag pass but she was the loveliest person I’ve met,” he said of their first meeting, per Gigwise.

First performance together

By December of that year, Sheeran and Swift took to the stage for their first live performance together. 

The duo shone on stage at New York City’s Z100’s Jingle Ball held at Madison Square Garden.

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Ed joins Red

Their performance at Madison Square Garden acted as a perfect dry-run, as soon after Sheeran joined Swift on tour for her Red album throughout 2013.

Sheeran played as the opening act for most of Swift’s North American leg of the tour.

While he didn’t continue with her as she took the tour international, he did join her again on stage when she performed in London. 

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During his recent appearance for her Eras Tour show, Swift recalled the time they spent touring together with fondness.

“We toured together on the Red tour. Every time I am doing the Red part of this show I think about the memories that we made and now he is someone who plays Wembley like every week,” she said to the crowd with pride. 

Towards the end of that same year, Swift returned the favour to Sheeran, joining him on stage at Madison Square Garden to play their song Everything Has Changed.

She went all out for the occasion even choosing to wear an ‘I Heart Ed’ shirt matching his ‘I Heart NY’ shirt.

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Collaborations

Outside of performing together, the pair have also collaborated together on some musical projects.

Their first collaboration was Everything Has Changed, followed by End Game, which featured on Swift’s Reputation album. Sheeran cowrote the song with her and even appeared in it’s official music video. 

In 2021, Sheeran worked with Swift again as she rerecorded all of her music after losing the rights to her masters. He featured on the redo of Everything Has Changed and a new song Run on the Red (Taylor’s Version) album.

Despite only releasing it for her re-recorded album, Run is a song that the pair wrote back in the early days of their friendship.

“Run is the first song me and @taylorswift ever wrote together, and Everything Has Changed was the second,” Sheeran revealed on Instagram back in 2021. 

“We re-recorded both of them for Red (Taylor’s Version) which is out today and they are just great. So fun getting to revisit these again.”

Swift also worked with Sheeran on his song The Joker & The Queen which was released in 2021. 

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Award shows

During the years of their friendship both Swift and Sheeran have achieved mammoth success with plenty of platinum records and awards between them.

But there doesn’t seem to be an ounce of rivalry between the pair, who have been seen publicly supporting each other’s wins.

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In 2015, when she won her first Brit Award for Best International Female Artist, Swift shouted out her dear friend Sheeran.

“Honestly, I know I wouldn’t be up here if it wasn’t for one of my best friends, who took me to pubs and taught me how to make a good cup of tea and taught me everything I know about the UK,” she said during her acceptance speech.

“I just want to say I love you, Ed Sheeran.”

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Sheeran opens up about their bond

Swift is not alone in her sentiments, just last year Sheeran opened up about his friendship with the Fortnight singer.

“I have long, long, long conversations with Taylor about stuff just because I feel like she’s one of the only people that actually truly understands where I’m at,” Sheeran told Zane Lowe on his podcast The Zane Lowe Show revealing that the pair had only just caught up before the interview. 

“We were just — everything that was on our minds we talked about, I mean that in itself is kind of therapy as well because you’re actually talking to someone that genuinely gets it,” he explained.

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Sheeran in his Eras Tour era

Sheeran’s recent appearance at Swift’s Eras Tour show in London feels like a full circle moment for the duo. 

When fans clocked on that Sheeran would be joining Swift for her acoustic set, they erupted into screams of excitement. 

It’s a friendship that their fans seem to cherish as much as they do and its one that we can only hope that lasts for many decades to come as they continue to make moves in the music industry.

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