Their mental health awareness video starts with a gag—Sheeran “mistakenly” believing their team-up was to bring ginger awareness.
Prince Harry and musician Ed Sheeran teamed up to bring awareness to Mental Health Day, October 10, taking a moment to run a gag about their shared hair color. On a video shared to both of their Instagram accounts, Sheeran seems to have “mistaken” the purpose of their get-together.
“Really excited today,” Sheeran says in what looks like a behind-the-scenes interview. “I’m gonna go and, uh, film a thing with Prince Harry. (He) contacted me about doing a charity video with him, which is gonna be good. I’ve long admired him from afar.”
A Great Misunderstanding
Prince Harry pushes along the misunderstanding with ambiguous comments.
“This, for me, is a subject and a conversation that’s just not talked about enough,” said Prince Harry. “I mean, people all over the world are really suffering.”
The two then start to write a song, but soon their misunderstanding becomes evident.
“People just don’t understand what it’s like for people like us,” Sheeran says in the video. “The jokes and the snide comments, and I just feel like it’s time we stood up and said, ‘We’re not going to take this anymore. We’re ginger, and we’re going to fight.’”
Prince Harry then tries to set the record straight.
World Mental Health Day
“Um, OK,” he says to Sheeran. “Slightly awkward. This might have been maybe a miscommunication, but this is about World Mental Health Day.”
Sheeran tries to play it off.
“Oh, yeah, yeah. Of course. No, no. I definitely knew that,” he says, deleting the phrase “GINGERS UNITE” from the document draft on his laptop.
The pair get back on message after the gag, encouraging everyone to be aware of those around them who might be struggling with mental health issues.
“Guys, this World Mental Health Day, reach out, make sure that your friends, strangers, look out for anybody that might be suffering in silence,” Prince Harry tells viewers with Sheeran sitting by his side. “We’re all in this together.”
Prince Harry has been an advocate for mental health, struggling himself as he grappled with the sudden death of his mother, Princess Diana, as a child.
“My way of dealing with it was sticking my head in the sand, refusing to ever think about my mum, because why would that help?” he told The Telegraph in a 2017 interview. “It’s only going to make you sad; it’s not going to bring her back. So, from an emotional side, I was like ‘Right, don’t ever let your emotions be part of anything.’ So, I was a typical sort of 20, 25, 28-year-old running around going ‘Life is great’, or ‘Life is fine’ and that was exactly it.”
Recently, Prince Harry has set his sights on the popular video game Fortnite, which he blasts as addictive and irresponsible.
Drug-fueled parties, overdoses, stories of survival and despair. These songs deal with all that and more.
There are so many songs celebrating the party lifestyle “and we dancing to a song about a face gone numb” (Macklemore – “Drug Dealer” feat. Ariana DeBoo). What about songs that explore recovery from addiction? There are more than you might realize.
How long will it take to dispel the stigma around substance use disorders and other mental illnesses? Songs that talk openly about these issues are helping to bring awareness to the public consciousness. In just the last decade, there have been so many incredible songs written about addiction. Here are just a handful of the best songs about addiction and recovery from the last five years:
1. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood
Shawn Mendes wrote the 2018 song “In My Blood” as a way to open up about his struggles with anxiety. The lyrics ring true for anyone who knows the excruciating pain of trying to cope with mental illness, including addiction. The song is empowering with the lyrics “sometimes I feel like giving up but I just can’t, it isn’t in my blood.” Survivors can relate to the drive to not give up on yourself, even when it’s something you can’t explain, that it just isn’t in your blood to give up.
I’m overwhelmed and insecure, give me something I could take to ease my mind slowly Just have a drink and you’ll feel better Just take her home and you’ll feel better Keep telling me that it gets better Does it ever?
2. Mike Posner – I Took a Pill in Ibiza
You might know this 2015 song in its hyped up, remixed version. The SeeB remix of this song was played in clubs non-stop and streamed over a billion times on Spotify, and its music video seen over a billion times on YouTube. The original is actually a stripped-down tune about regretful drug use, excessive partying, depression, and loneliness. The backstory of a song doesn’t dictate how it’s consumed by listeners, but this tune was basically borne from a bad trip and written as a way to process “dark and heavy emotion.”
The song is also poignant for its mention of Avicii, who was open about his own experiences with depression, addiction, and recovery, and who died by suicide last year.
But you don’t wanna be high like me Never really knowing why like me You don’t ever wanna step off that roller coaster and be all alone
3. Calvin Harris, Rag’n’Bone Man – Giant
Scottish DJ Calvin Harris collaborated with Rag’n’Bone Man to create the stirring 2019 song “Giant.” Giant starts off with a common thread in addiction, loneliness, and trying to fill that void with something (in this case, pills). The song itself goes on to feel empowering and hopeful. Rag’n’Bone Man sounds like he’s singing about recovery: “You taught me something, yeah, freedom is ours, it was you who taught me living is.”
I understood loneliness Before I knew what it was I saw the pills on the table
4. Demi Lovato – Sober
The entirety of Demi Lovato’s single “Sober” is a real-life relapse confession. She wrote this song about her 2018 relapse after six years of sobriety. Part of the message is similar to Macklemore’s “Starting Over” as she sings about letting down her fans and the challenge of being public about sobriety. Loneliness is a central tenet of addiction for many, and this song touches on that with lyrics like “it’s only when I’m lonely…just hold me, I’m lonely.”
Momma, I’m so sorry, I’m not sober anymore And daddy, please forgive me for the drinks spilled on the floor To the ones who never left me We’ve been down this road before I’m so sorry, I’m not sober anymore
5. Ed Sheeran – Save Myself
Ed Sheeran’s 2017 “Save Myself” is about finally learning to put yourself first. Like a person who became addicted to cope with codependency, the song talks about the problems inherent in giving your everything to save another person. If we don’t take care of ourselves, we can’t ever help anyone else.
Life can get you down so I just numb the way it feels I drown it with a drink and out-of-date prescription pills And all the ones that love me they just left me on the shelf No farewell So before I save someone else, I’ve got to save myself
And before I blame someone else, I’ve got to save myself And before I love someone else, I’ve got to love myself
6. J. Cole – Once an Addict
Cole’s 2018 album KOD tackles topics like mental health, addictions, trauma, and mental illness stigma in the black community. The song “Once an Addict” explores being an addict who is the child of an addict. Those of us who have experience with a caregiver’s alcoholism can directly relate to the pain of watching someone you love kill themselves slowly; then to numb that pain, becoming addicts themselves.
Something’s got a hold on me I can’t let it go Right Life can bring much pain There are many ways to deal with this pain (right) Choose wisely
7. Belly – What Does It Mean?
Palestinian-Canadian rapper Belly put together the powerful 2018 album “Immigrant.” The album includes a song titled “What Does It Mean?” This track doesn’t hold back in its honest depiction of addiction at a young age. It holds hope by talking about still being alive after having an overdose at only 16 years old.
On God that’s the moment that they all fear (all fear) Look, I was only fourteen (fourteen) X addiction got me feeling like a whole fiend Sixteen, first time that I OD’d And I’m still here
8. NF – How Could You Leave Us
Nathan Feuerstein, better known as NF, is a rapper who often pens songs about childhood trauma and mental illness. NF’s 2016 song “How Could You Leave Us” is a heartbreaking song about losing his mother to an addiction to pills. He says in the song that he doesn’t know what it’s like to have that addiction, but he does “know what it’s like to be a witness, it kills.”
I wish you were here mama but every time I picture you All I feel is pain, I hate the way I remember you They found you on the floor, I could tell that you felt hollow Gave everything you had plus your life to them pill bottles
What are some of your faves? Let us know in the comments.
