The word "Azizam" is one of those delightful little treasures from the Persian language. It's derived from Aziz, meaning "beloved," with the suffix -am, which means "my." Put together, you get something wonderfully affectionate, like "my dear" or "my darling."
And now it's also the title of a song by Ed Sheeran where he tells a love interest he wants to spend the night with her.
"Azizam," released on April 4, 2025, is the first single from Sheeran's eighth album, Play. On it, Sheeran swaps his usual acoustic musings for a shimmering fusion of pop and Persian influences, thanks in a large part to producer Ilya Salmanzadeh - a man with a CV full of pop royalty (Ariana Grande, Ellie Goulding, Tate McRae). Ilya was born in Iran (formerly Persia) and moved to Sweden with his family when he was 11. The title and meaning of the track stem directly from his Iranian heritage.
The song was sparked by a conversation between Sheeran and Ilya. The pair discovered that Persian music and Irish folk have a lot in common: unusual scales, percussive trickery, and a fondness for making you feel something deep in your ribs. Suddenly, they were off, like two kids on a treasure hunt, layering traditional instruments like the santoor (which sounds like a harp having a philosophical moment), the daf (a kind of very large, slightly judgy tambourine), and the hammered dulcimer (as lovely as it is awkward to spell) into a bright, buoyant pop track.
Sheeran embraced the experiment wholeheartedly. "I love learning about music and different cultures the more I travel and connect with people," he wrote on social media. "It was like opening a door to a completely new and exciting world."
It's a trick Sheeran has done before. A passionate music fan adept at identifying new commercial avenues, he has nodded to Irish folk traditions in "
Galway Girl," learnt Spanish to work with
Colombia's J Balvin and collaborated with Afrobeats stars like
Fireboy DML and
Burna Boy.
Ed Sheeran approaches songwriting like a musical scavenger hunt, sometimes chasing a single phrase for minutes until it unlocks a melody. In this session, the phrase "show me how to move like the water" became a lyrical key, with Sheeran circling it repeatedly, humming and strumming until it clicked into a possible chorus.
Sheeran debuted "Azizam" in classic Ed fashion: with a surprise performance in the French Quarter of New Orleans on March 15, 2025, flanked by a brass band called The Soul Rebels and clutching a heart-shaped balloon. One can only assume the balloon was essential to the mood.
Sheeran paired the song with a whimsical video by Liam Pethick - who previously directed the 2022 documentary Ed Sheeran: Full Circle - showing the pop star gallivanting across the US and UK, pink balloon in tow.
Directed by Iranian-American filmmaker Saman Kesh, the official video follows Sheeran as he struggles with writer's block in a recording studio before being transported into a Persian wedding celebration. This concept emerged when Sheeran asked Ilya Salmanzadeh for input on how to best showcase Persian culture, with Salmanzadeh suggesting, "You should depict a Persian wedding; that's the ideal way to highlight the culture in a video."
The video was filmed in South London in mid-February 2025, shortly after Sheeran completed the Indian leg of his +–=÷× Tour.
On Play, Sheeran incorporates Indian musical elements, cross-cultural sounds, and a more playful energy compared with his darker previous album, Subtract.
