Ed Sheeran wows with surprise duet of Eyes Closed with New York subway star Mike Yung

Virgin Radio

12 Apr 2023, 12:26

Former busker Ed Sheeran has added some magic to a New York City subway station by belting out an impromptu duet with much-loved local musician Mike Yung. The former America's Got Talent star was filming a video at Church Street station in Brooklyn singing Sheeran's new song Eyes Closed when the Brit sensation turned up out of nowhere.

Sheeran crept up behind him and joined in the performance as the pair embraced. Yung was also given tickets to Ed's show at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn where he played his new album Subtract in full in America for the first time.

"Oh wow! You just made my day," Yung told Sheeran and later shared videos at Ed's show. He wrote: "Thanks for the tickets bro the show was Amazing @teddysphotos."

The star replied: "Much love."

Yung previously went viral for a cover of Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud in 2016 which has more than 5.9 million views on YouTube. 

Ed told fans about his gig over the pond: "Played Subtract again in full last night, first time on USA soil. It was emotional, but electric, I loved it. Thank you all so much for coming, less than a month now to release, I can’t wait."

Sheeran announced the album in March and wrote: "I had been working on Subtract for a decade, trying to sculpt the perfect acoustic album, writing and recording hundreds of songs with a clear vision of what I thought it should be.

"Then at the start of 2022, a series of events changed my life, my mental health, and ultimately the way I viewed music and art.

"Writing songs is my therapy. It helps me make sense of my feelings. I wrote without thought of what the songs would be, I just wrote whatever tumbled out. And in just over a week I replaced a decade’s worth of work with my deepest darkest thoughts," he said.

"Within the space of a month, my pregnant wife got told she had a tumour, with no route to treatment until after the birth. My best friend Jamal, a brother to me, died suddenly, and I found myself standing in court defending my integrity and career as a songwriter. I was spiralling through fear, depression and anxiety. I felt like I was drowning, head below the surface, looking up but not being able to break through for air."

He concluded: "As an artist I didn’t feel like I could credibly put a body of work into the world that didn’t accurately represent where I am and how I need to express myself at this point in my life. This album is purely that. It’s opening the trapdoor into my soul.

"For the first time, I’m not trying to craft an album people will like, I’m merely putting something out that’s honest and true to where I am in my adult life. This is last February’s diary entry and my way of making sense of it. This is Subtract."

Here's Jeremy Renner making his first red carpet appearance since his snowplough accident.