Ed Sheeran, Jimmy Fallon and The Roots Sing "Shape of You" With Classroom Instruments

NBC's The Tonight Show puts a new spin on the singer-songwriter's No. 1 smash

By Zach Johnson Feb 28, 2017 1:15 PMTags

If you're not sick of hearing "Shape of You" on the radio, you're in luck.

Backed by Jimmy Fallon and The Roots, Ed Sheeran performed his smash hit on NBC's The Tonight Show Monday. It was part of the "Classroom Instruments" series, which kicked off in 2012 with Carly Rae Jepsen and "Call Me Maybe." Other musicians who have participated in the recurring segment since Jepsen include Christina Aguilera ("Your Body"), Mariah Carey ("All I Want for Christmas is You"), Idina Menzel ("Let It Go"), Meghan Trainor ("All About That Bass"), Adele ("Hello"), Madonna ("Holiday") and Metallica ("Enter Sandman"), among others.

Along with "Castle on the Hill," Sheeran's "Shape of You" is one of two lead singles off his album Divide, out March 3. But, as he confessed to Nick Grimshaw on BBC Radio 1's Breakfast Show in January, "Shape of You" was a "random" last-minute add.

"I went in to write songs for other people with Steve Mac and Johnny McDaid. We were writing this song and I was like, 'This would really work for Rihanna.' I started singing lyrics like 'putting Van the Man on the jukebox' and I was like, 'Well, she's not really going to sing that, is she?'" Sheeran recalled. "And we sort of decided halfway through that we were just going to make it for me. This was the last song that was finished, and I just didn't put two and two together that this was even going to be on the album. I just kind of wrote it and was like, 'Oh, that was fun.'"

The original version of "Shape of You" has dominated the U.K. and Australian singles charts for seven consecutive weeks, and the song has topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. five times.

(E! and NBC are both members of the NBCUniversal family.)

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