A clip shared by both artists on social media shows Sheeran knocking on John’s door with a set of note cards in hand that read, “Hello. Last Christmas I received a call from my mate Elton John and he told me we should do a ‘Christmas Song. And I replied ‘Yeah. Maybe in 2022.’ But I actually wrote the chorus that day and here we are. Our Christmas song ‘Merry Christmas’ is out this Friday. Go pre-order or pre-save it now. It has sleigh bells. A lot of them….”

The song’s proceeds from the Christmas period in the United Kingdom will benefit both Sheeran’s Suffolk Music Foundation and John’s AIDS foundation.