Happier

Album

÷

Label

Atlantic Records

Genre

Uncategorized

Composer(s)

Benjamin Joseph Levin;Edward Christopher Sheeran;Ryan Benjamin Tedder

Entered Chart

Mar 25, 2017

Peak Date

Mar 25, 2017

Released

27 April 2018

Recorded

2016

Catalog #

Atlantic

Ed Sheeran sings on this breakup ballad about seeing his girl with another man. However this not a bitter diss at an ex. He told Spotify: "I've definitely got to a point in my life where I'm friends with all my ex-girlfriends now, like we're all cool and it's very much like I'm really happy that you're happy and with someone that you love, and they are really happy that I'm happy and with someone and there's a grown up element to it." The song is a collaboration with Ryan Tedder, who has penned hits for the likes of Leona Lewis ("Bleeding Love") and Beyoncé ("Halo") as well as his own group OneRepublic. Ed Sheeran and Ryan Tedder first met backstage at The X Factor UK in November 2014. "'It was a really weird thing because I had heard that he just loves writing songs all the time," Sheeran told British radio station Capital FM. "I'd never met him. He was in the dressing room next to me at X Factor so I just popped my head around the corner and was like, 'Oh, do you want to write a song tonight?'" Tedder and Sheeran ended up writing more than two dozen songs during the Divide sessions. However while the album contains only one of those songs, ("Happier") Tedder isn't worried. "I have all these voice notes of different songs with him that, if I was smart, I would be pitching to Justin Bieber," he laughed to the BBC. Sheeran ended up recording this song in a makeshift studio in the cold room on the Queen Mary 2 Cruise Ship with producer Benny Blanco. He explained on the Capital Evening Show with Roman Kemp Tonight: "This was a track I almost left off completely. I'd written it with Ryan Tedder and Benny Blanco ages ago and it was just…for some reason we'd put an EDM beat on it and I was just like, 'I really don't like it' and then I was on the Queen Mary 2 Cruise Ship, going through songs that we were looking to record when we got to Suffolk and we got to that and I was like 'nah, I don't really like it' and then Benny took the drums off it and I was like 'ah oh actually this has something'. The song now is in a better spot than it was." The song's music video features the same Puppet Ed that was seen partying in the singer's "Sing" clip. This visual finds the heartbroken marionette Lothario wandering the streets of New York lamenting over his balloon girl ex, after spotting her enjoying a laugh-filled meal with another puppet.

Walking down 29th and Park
I saw you in another's arms
Only a month we've been apart
You look happier
Saw you walk inside a bar
He said somethin' to make you laugh
I saw that both your smiles were twice as wide as ours
Yeah, you look happier, you do

Ain't nobody hurt you like I hurt you
But ain't nobody love you like I do
Promise that I will not take it personal, baby
If you're movin' on with someone new

'Cause baby you look happier, you do
My friends told me one day I'll feel it too
And until then I'll smile to hide the truth
But I know I was happier with you

Sat in the corner of the room
Everything's reminding me of you
Nursing an empty bottle
And telling myself you're happier, aren't you?
(Hey, yeah, hey, yeah, hey, yeah)

Oh, ain't nobody hurt you like I hurt you (hey, yeah, hey, yeah)
But ain't nobody need you like I do (hey, yeah, hey, yeah)
I know that there's others that deserve you (hey, yeah, hey, yeah)
But my darlin', I am still in love with you

But I guess you look happier, you do
My friends told me one day I'll feel it too
I could try to smile to hide the truth
But I know I was happier with you

Hey, yeah, hey, yeah, hey, yeah
Hey, yeah, hey, yeah, hey, yeah
Hey, yeah, hey, yeah, hey, yeah
Hey, yeah, hey, yeah, hey, yeah

'Cause baby, you look happier, you do
I knew one day you'd fall for someone new
But if he breaks your heart like lovers do
Just know that I'll be waitin' here for you