Ed Sheeran joined forces with leading dancehall artist Ishawna for a new track and video, dubbed “Brace It,” marking Sheeran’s first official dancehall collaboration.
The track, which was written by Sheeran, Ishawna and Cordel “Skatta” Burrell, has already amassed more than six million streams and topped the iTunes Reggae Chart. Its video, helmed by Filmheads Cuban director Jose-Emilion Sagaro, was filmed between London and Miami, spotlighting Sheeran and Ishawna’s long-distance friendship.
The two artists united after Sheeran listened to Ishawna’s “Equal Rights” cover of his famed single “Shape Of You,” while he was visiting the Caribbean in 2017. They kept up each with each other via social media, where Ishawna sent Sheeran another track she was working on, to which Sheeran responded with an instrumental idea for collaboration. Thus, “Brace It” came to life.
“Me and [Ishawna] made a tune after me being in love with her ‘Equal Rights’ cover of ‘Shape Of You,’” said Sheeran in a statement. “I love her, and loved working with her.”
Ishawna added, “Working on ‘Brace It’ was such an all-around great experience…Ed is super talented and a joy to work with. I feel so blessed and honored that I was able to create this amazing song [and video] with him…Ed and I were in different countries due to our schedules so we had to shoot separately. Yet they were still able to come up with a simple yet creative treatment for the video that wasn’t cliche.”
Watch Ishana and Ed Sheeran’s “Brace It” music video above.
In more music news, Moses Sumney delivered a new rendition of Billie Holiday’s “I’ll Be Seeing You.”
