Ed Sheeran’s jam with Indian percussionist goes viral; ‘Shape of You’ gets a ‘ghatam’ twist

In the video, Iyer begins playing the rhythm of Sheeran’s hit song Shape Of You, and the English singer soon joins in, trying his hand at the clay instrument. Soon, viewers are treated to a ghatam-backed cover of the song, sung by Sheeran himself.

Captioning the post, Iyer wrote, “Ed and me playing ghatam from our Mumbai jam. This just happened before we jammed sapphire. This is also one of the moments that actually led to it….”

Iyer also wrote, “These are 2 ghatams in C# and D# Ig. I gifted the C# ghatam to Ed. This is not REHEARSED I just gave the instrument to him and we both vibed and chilled. It was so much fun recording for him at Goa. Such a spontaneous musician.”

Watch the video here:

 

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A post shared by Ganesh Murali Iyer (@ganeshmuraliiyer)

Since Iyer mentioned that this happened just before jamming Sapphire, we watched the music video of the song – with far too many intercuts – closely, and found a sequence from the exact day.

Here it is:

A screengrab from Ed Sheeran’s Sapphire music video showing Ganesh Murali Iyer

In the background is Ganesh Murali Iyer, the ghatams and mics.

In the comments section of the Reel, Iyer explained what a ghatam is. He wrote, “The Ghatam is a percussion instrument used in various repertoires across the Indian subcontinent, especially in Southern India . Its variant called ghara in Punjab and Magda in Rajasthan . It is made mainly of clay, baked with brass or copper filings with a small amount of iron filings. It represents the pancha Maha bhoota’s according to Vedic tradition ( five elements of nature) ie Earth (Prithvi), Water (Jala), Fire (Agni), Air (Vayu), and Space or Ether (Akasha).”

Many Instagram users reacted to the post. One said, “Bro got the entire country together with just 1 song.” Another user commented, “True devotees of art together! What a moment.” A third user wrote, “From class benches to with ed sheeran on ghatam we’ve seen it all!!”

Watch Sheeran’s Sapphire here: 

The Sapphire music video is also making headlines as it features Indian cinema giant Shah Rukh Khan in a one-second cameo. Khan appears between 42nd and 43rd seconds, for those who are keen.