Ed Sheeran Reflects on Grief Journey in Moving New Song “Eyes Closed”

Along with the track, Ed released a corresponding music video, which features a blue creature following him like grief. In the release, he shared his inspiration for the clip.

“When I was thinking of concepts for the ‘Eyes Closed’ music video, I wanted to make a video inspired by movies like Harvey, where the main character has an imaginary friend who’s a giant rabbit that no one can see,” the musician—who shares daughters Lyra, 2, and Jupiter, 10 months, with wife Cherry Seaborn—explained. “There’s also a book I read my daughters where sadness is encapsulated by an imaginary creature.”

Ed wanted to convey these ideas and feelings through the visuals.

“Often sadness is something that follows you around, engulfing the rooms you’re in, and you can feel and see it, but no one else around you can,” he continued. “So I decided to create my own big blue monster for the video. He gets bigger and bigger as the video goes on, til he takes up whole rooms, and is all I can see, just like sadness.”