Songfacts®:

• The word "celestial" is used to describe things that have to do with the heavens. It refers both to visible heavens - the sun, moon, and stars are celestial bodies - and those who dwell in the spiritual heaven such as angels and spirits.
  
  Here, Ed Sheeran sings of being at a low ebb ("hearts balanced on a razor blade") because he's separated from his romantic partner. But when love breaks through the clouds, the singer feels his "troubled heart is a million miles away" and is "dancing out in space." Knowing that she is thinking about him gives him a "celestial" feeling.
• Sheeran released "Celestial" as a single on September 29, 2022, in collaboration with The Pokémon Company. It appears in the role-playing Pokémon Scarlet and Violet games published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for the Nintendo Switch. To celebrate the collaboration, Sheeran got a new tattoo of the adorable water-type Squirtle on his arm.
• Sheeran has a long-standing love for Pokémon, having first played the game in primary school. When he got a Game Boy color with Pokémon yellow for his 8th birthday, it became an obsession. "I loved the whole world they created," Sheeran said, "it kept me distracted if there was negative stuff happening in my life/school that I wanted to avoid. It was a world I could escape into and I've played it ever since."
  
  Sheeran still has the same Game Boy and continues to play Pokémon silver on long-haul flights. While traveling in Japan, he met the people from Pokémon and they joked about him writing a song for them. The conversation led to this collaboration.
• Sheeran kept the identity of his love interest vague enough to allow a parallel meaning for the song; his love for the Pokémon games allows him to escape from a dark place into a better world.
• The English star performed a special live set within Pokémon Go in November 2021, shortly after he dropped Divide.
• After releasing "Celestial," Sheeran added it to the deluxe edition of Divide.
• Sheeran wrote the song with:
  
  Snow Patrol guitarist Johnny McDaid. The musician co-produced nine songs on Divide and co-wrote 10, including the hit singles "Bad Habits" and "Shivers."
  
  Producer Steve Mac, who also helped McDaid and Sheeran write "Shivers." His previous collaborations with McDaid and Sheeran include the chart-topping single "Shape Of You."
• Directed by Yuichi Kodama and animated by illustrator Yu Nagaba - a frequent collaborator of The Pokémon Company - the video features all sorts of Pokémon. We see Sheeran have a fry-up with Charmander, a Snorlax saves him from a car accident, and the pop star hitches a ride home from Charizard.
• Ed Sheeran played "Celestial" live for the first time during his appearance on the October 18, 2022 episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.