🎧 Songs for Monday: "Galway Girl" by Ed Sheeran

Volume 1, Track 7

I’d describe my taste in music as a scrambled egg. It’s boundless and sometimes basic, and adding virtually anything improves it. You’ll discover this for yourself in this mmmessy burger weekly feature, “Songs for Monday,” in which I’ll share the track I couldn’t stop listening to the week before.

---

This week, we’re listening to “Galway Girl,” by Ed Sheeran.

Starring blonde-haired Saoirse Ronan, this music video takes us out for a night in the town of Galway, Ireland, through Sheeran’s eyes, himself only visible in it when posing for a selfie with a group of young Irish dancers and he flips the camera on his phone to self-facing. (So sneaky!)

Sheeran brings so many little memorable bits to his songs. What I like most about this, besides the Irish fiddle and Sheeran’s rapping, is the kind of rhythmic harmonizing that comes in the outro (2:25), which is basically any one of us humming the tune of a song stuck in our heads. But what I love most about it is that the video is now (or was) the basis for a walking tour setup by the Galway Cultural Institute, which follows Sheeran’s footsteps through his night out with Ronan.

Hard to repeat this particular night out, I’m sure. Sheeran, who spent many summers in Galway, where relatives lived, was led around town by Ronan, raised less than three hours away in Dublin and Carlow.