Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you awesome songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Taylor Swift joins Ed Sheeran in the newly released remix of “The Joker and the Queen,” a self-deprecating love song in which the awkward and freckle-faced Sheeran wonders why the beautiful and confident love of his life has chosen to be with someone like him.
He sings, “And I know you could fall for a thousand kings / And hearts that could give you a diamond ring / When I fold, you see the best in me / The joker and the queen.”
In the remix of the song, Swift adds her perspective of the same relationship.
She sings, “And I know / You think that what makes a king / Is gold / A palace and diamond rings / When I fold, you see the best in me / The joker and the queen.”
In the official video, which has been viewed 14 million times in only six days, Swift and Sheeran reprise their roles as Ava and Jack, characters they introduced in Swift’s 2012 song, “Everything Has Changed.” In that video, they become sweethearts in elementary school. In the remix of “The Joker and the Queen,” the characters are first-semester freshman at different colleges. The soulmates seem lost without each other.
The video includes a texting scene, which includes a fun Easter egg. In a cut that lasts for just a blink, we see the screen of Jack’s cell phone and this message to Ava: “You’d think for multi-platinum lyricists we’d do better.”
“Me and Taylor first met and wrote + recorded our first song together in 2012, ten years ago now, I’m so so honored to have her on this song,” Sheeran told his 37 million Instagram followers. “Not only is she the best singer/songwriter in the world but she’s also a very close friend, I’m very lucky to have her in my life. For the music video we got the kids from our song Everything Has Changed, all grown up and off to college now!”
Released as the fourth single from his 2021 album Equals (represented by the = sign), “The Joker and The Queen” is said to be an ode to Sheeran’s wife of three years, Cherry Seaborn.
When the couple announced their engagement in early 2017, Sheeran proudly revealed that he was wearing an engagement ring that was designed and hand-crafted by Seaborn.
“I never saw why men didn’t wear engagement rings,” Sheeran told a reporter for Lorraine, a British lifestyle and entertainment TV show. “It’s the same commitment either way. Cherry made it for me herself out of silver clay. I really like it.”
The “silver clay” that Seaborn used in the fabrication of Sheeran’s ring is a crafting material made of very small particles of precious metal mixed with a binder and water. It can be easily molded by hand into jewelry and then fired in a kiln. The binder burns away and only the precious metal remains.
Please check out the video of “The Joker and the Queen.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“The Joker and the Queen (Remix)”
Written by Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Johnny McDaid, Fred Gibson and Sam Roman. Performed by Ed Sheehan (feat. Taylor Swift).
How was I to know
It’s a crazy thing
I showed you my hand
And you still let me win
And who was I to say
That this was meant to be?
The road that was broken
Brought us together
And I know
You could fall for a thousand kings
And hearts
That would give you a diamond ring
When I fold
You see the best in me
The joker and the queen
I’ve been played before
If you hadn’t guessed
So I kept my cards closed
To my foolproof vest
But you called my bluff
And saw through all my tells
And then you went all in
And we left together
And I know
You think that what makes a king
Is gold
A palace and diamond rings
When I fold
You see the best in me
The joker and the queen
And I know
You could fall for a thousand kings
And hearts
That would give you a diamond ring
When I folded
You saw the best in me
The joker and the queen
The joker and the queen
Credit: Image via Instagram.com / teddysphotos.