Ed Sheeran Recounts How He Convinced Justin Bieber to Collab on ‘I Don’t Care’ Onstage at Toronto's Rogers Centre
At the first of three shows at the stadium, the chart-topping hitmaker offered some insight into the pair’s 2019 track, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100.
Ed Sheeran & Justin Bieber
Ed Sheeran gave some love to Justin Bieber at his first night at Toronto’s Rogers Centre last night (Aug. 20), shedding new light on their 2019 hit “I Don’t Care.”
Onstage at the Toronto stadium, Sheeran recounted Bieber’s lack of interest in the industry at the time, but the British star still asked Bieber to work together.
“He was not working, he was not singing, he was not touring, he was not doing music videos, he wasn’t doing press, he wasn’t doing anything,” Sheeran said.
Surprisingly, Bieber said yes. But when he asked for the Canadian singer to star in the corresponding music video, he said: “Absolutely not.”
But Sheeran wasn’t giving up.
“I went: ‘How about if I came to your house with a green screen for 20 minutes with a bunch of costumes,” he said, recalling his conversation with Bieber. “We’ll dress up, we’ll get weird, we’ll make a video."
This time, Bieber agreed.
"He’s from near here, so let’s sing the song,” Sheeran told the crowd.
Sheeran launched into “I Don’t Care” as photos of the two in goofy get-ups from the music video flashed on-screen behind him.
@much @Ed Sheeran on convincing Justin to be in the MV foe “I Don’t Care” 😍 #edsheeran #justinbieber
The collaboration reached No. 2 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 and remained on the chart for 46 weeks.
While it’s Sheeran's highest-charting collaboration in Canada, Bieber has a slew of chart-topping collabs on the Canadian Hot 100, including “Stay” with The Kid LAROI and “Despacito” with Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee, which spent 12 and 16 weeks at No. 1, respectively.
Four years earlier, Sheeran and Bieber teamed up on 2015's "Love Yourself," which spent two weeks at the top in Bieber's home country in 2016. While Bieber is the only credited artist, Sheeran and producer Benny Blanco are credited as songwriters.
Later in the show, Sheeran talked about his love of Toronto, explaining that his first shows in the city were his first outside of the U.K. “I feel like Toronto has a similar energy to the U.K.,” he explained. “There’s some sort of synergy between our two niches. I love being here.”
Sheeran showed his love for the city by sporting a Blue Jays jersey. Last week, Hilary Duff did a similar gesture, sporting a vintage Blue Jays jersey during the first of two sold-out nights at Toronto's RBC Amphitheatre.
@alexanarezny go jays go 🙂↕️ #edsheeran #concert #toronto #bluejays #looptour @Ed Sheeran @Toronto Blue Jays
Sheeran is currently touring the globe, playing a medley of his decade-spanning hits, including “The A Team,” “Shape of You,” “Bad Habits” and “Sapphire,” among many tracks. He will return to Rogers Centre tonight (Aug. 21) and tomorrow (Aug. 22).
Watch the “I Don’t Care” music video below.
