Over the past few days, Ed Sheeran has kicked off a lot of conversations about the Band Aid charity Christmas single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Sheeran participated in a 30th-anniversary remake of the single in 2014. Yesterady, Band Aid released a megamix of past versions, and Sheeran wrote that the megamix used his voice without his permission: “Had I had the choice I would have respectfully declined the use of my vocals. A decade on and my understanding of the narrative associated with this has changed.” In response, promoter Harvey Goldsmith dismissed the “busybodies and woke do-gooders” making an issue out of it. Sheeran hasn’t had more to say about that, but he does have a new Christmas song of his own.

Today, Sheeran shared his new song “Under The Tree,” recorded for the soundtrack of Netflix’s upcoming Christmas film That Christmas. On Instagram, Sheeran writes, “This song is written about a character in the film who wants to spend Christmas with his dad, but doesn’t get to. It’s a heartbreaking scene, and something so many people go through every year being alone at Christmas.” It definitely sounds like an Ed Sheeran Christmas song. Sheeran’s video is below.

The song arrives right as certain corners of the internet are making a big thing out of a recent break of decorum on Sheeran’s part. As SkyNews reports, Sheeran walked up to hug soccer analyst Jamie Redknapp after Manchester United played Ipswitch to a 1-1 draw on Sunday. Sheeran is a fan and minority owner of Ipswitch, and this was in the middle of a post-match interview with Manchester United’s new manager Ruben Amorim.

I’m honestly a bit aghast at how rude that was from Ed Sheeran. Amorim should have told them all to get fucked pic.twitter.com/Hjm0VWovdF

— Richard (@gamray) November 24, 2024

This seems fine to me? But I don’t understand English football protocol. In any case, Sheeran reportedly apologized on Instagram, writing, “Apologies if I offended Amorim yesterday, didn’t actually realise he was being interviewed at the time, was popping to say hi and bye to Jamie. Obvz feel a bit of a bellend but life goes on. Great game though, congrats on all involved.”