Ed Sheeran Teased “The Joker And The Queen” Remix With Taylor Swift
This is no joke.
After months of speculation, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran have confirmed their latest collaboration is on the way. The song, “The Joker and the Queen,” is a remix of Sheeran’s track of the same name off his 2021 album, Equals. It’s dropping on Feb. 11. Yep, that’s the end of this week.
Sheeran spilled the tea at the 2022 BRIT Awards. While chatting with LADbible on the red carpet, he confirmed the forthcoming Swift collab. “It comes out Friday, and it’s with Taylor Swift,” he said. “We’re literally announcing that in like an hour.”
He followed up with an official song announcement on Twitter. “‘The Joker And The Queen’ featuring my good friend @taylorswift13 is out this Friday. Link in bio to pre-order or pre-save it x,” he tweeted on Feb. 9.
“The Joker and the Queen” remix is a long time coming. Sheeran and Swift are thought to have quietly dropped hints about the track for months. Fan rumors of the collab started circulating after a teaser Swift posted to Twitter for her “I Bet You Think About Me (Taylor’s Version)” video was released in November. Swift is known for offering her fans easter eggs. In the official trailer for the video, an equal sign is carved into a wedding cake. Though unconfirmed, this could be interpreted as a nod to Sheeran’s album, Equals, that features the original “The Joker and the Queen” track.
Sheeran’s latest music video for “Overpass Graffiti” also held a telling clue. His jacket in the video featured what looked like a Taylor Swift patch, though it’s hard to read clearly. Still, fans online spotted the patch.
“The Joker and the Queen” isn’t Swift and Sheeran’s first collab, though. The pop stars have frequently worked together since teaming up on the song “Everything Has Changed” in 2012. The pair also hit the studio together for 2017’s “End Game” and 2021’s “Run.”
They seem to be equally close friends IRL as they are professional collaborators. "It's such a pleasure to have people like her in the music industry," Sheeran told Pop Crush in 2012. “She has the talent and is so down to earth, head and shoulders.”
The respect is mutual. As Swift told Billboard in 2017, she admires Sheeran’s tenacity. “He is protected by an impenetrable and ever-present armor of enthusiasm that has helped him endure any setback, letdown or underestimation,” she said. “His reaction to any idea that fails is to almost immediately come up with a new one. He’s like a fighter who pops back up on his feet before you even noticed he’d been knocked down.”
Here’s hoping “The Joker And The Queen” isn’t the last collab from the two musical powerhouses.
