Songfacts®:

• British music entrepreneur and founder of the online R&B/Hip-Hop platform SB.TV, Jamal Edwards died of a drug overdose on February 20, 2022, aged 31. Jamal was influential in Ed Sheeran's rise and the two became close friends.
  
  Over piano chords and understated electronic beats, Sheeran delivers 64 raw and emotive bars that express his grief at Edwards' passing.
• "F64" is a freestyle track where Ed Sheeran writes a letter to his fallen friend 11 months after losing him.
  
  Yo, Jam, this is a letter to you
  It's been a while, but it's been hard for me to get in the booth
  
  He expresses his sadness at Jamal never meeting his daughter Jupiter, who was born in May 2022. Jamal would have been her godfather.
  
  You would've loved loving my little girls
  If not for them, I'd be done with the world
  
  Sheeran relates staying at Jamal's family house for a week, comforting his mother, Loose Woman panelist Brenda Edwards.
  
  Was at your mum's, there all week, tryna make sense but I can't
  And although it's been a year, still feel the pain in my heart
  
  The two were so close, some thought they were in a gay relationship.
  
  The day we met, yeah, I moved in and we were never apart
  People assumed that we were lovers, but we're brothers in arms
• The song's title doesn't appear in the lyrics. It refers to the length of Sheeran's freestyle, which lasts for 64 bars.
• Sheeran co-wrote "F64" with Godwin Vata Sonzi and the song's producer, Fred again. Dan Benson, JAE5 and Dave also get credited because "F64" interpolates JAE5's 2022 track "Propeller."
• Sheeran filmed the video at Stamford Bridge, the home stadium of Chelsea FC. Jamal Edwards was a lifelong fan of the team.
• "F64" is the second tribute song to a departed friend that Sheeran has recorded. On August 19, 2021, he released "Visiting Hours" in honor of the late Australian music impresario Michael Gudinski, whom he considered a father figure.