{"id":619020,"date":"2026-08-04T00:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T00:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/619020\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T00:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T00:23:11","slug":"ed-sheeran-wrote-katseyes-new-song-more-pop-stars-should-work-with-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/619020\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed Sheeran Wrote Katseye\u2019s New Song, More Pop Stars Should Work With Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt has been two years since the Netflix series Pop Star Academy brought Katseye<\/a> together, and the girl group still hasn\u2019t had a truly universal hit. They\u2019ve had popular songs, sure. There\u2019s the smooth, Latin-pop-inspired \u201cGabriela,\u201d which peaked at Number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100, and of course \u201cGnarly,\u201d the skittering viral track about fried chicken, Takis, and Teslas. \u201cInternet Girl\u201d seemed promising when Katseye<\/a> premiered it on tour, but the studio recording that arrived at the top of the year features some bizarre vocal choices that unravel the track. \u201cPinky Up\u201d barely cut through the discourse about their future as a group after HYBE and Geffen announced member Manon Bannerman<\/a> would embark on an indefinite hiatus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tKatseye have been downplaying their full potential, and their years of training, with each release. A likely pop figure might be the key to getting them back on track. Their latest single, \u201cAnimal,\u201d penned by Ed Sheeran<\/a> alongside Johnny McDaid and producers Omer Fedi and Blake Slatkin, is one of their best. It\u2019s not an incredibly ambitious song, but it\u2019s catchy and spirited enough to not come across as predictable \u2014 and it gives them a real shot at longevity in the pop arena. Sheeran knows how to write a pop hit that sticks, even when it\u2019s not for himself. In fact, more pop stars should call him to write their songs.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNobody knows you\u2019re outta control\/But I see a side behind the closed doors,\u201d the girls sing on the chorus from \u201cAnimal,\u201d trading off on the role throughout the song. \u201cThey get a glimpse here on the dance floor\/You move like an animal.\u201d It\u2019s classic boots-on-the-ground reporting from the dance floor, a pretty hard trope to mess up in pop. Lara gets the best one-liner on the song, with the pre-chorus: \u201cYour body gets twisted and tangled in mine\/Love so good, how could this be free?\/I keep your secret safe with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor a minute, \u201cAnimal\u201d sounds like it could have been ripped from one of Bruno Mars\u2019<\/a> Unorthodox Jukebox-era hard drives. But when the chorus kicks in over plucky acoustic guitars, any number of Sheeran singles spring to mind: \u201cSing,\u201d \u201cAzizam,\u201d \u201cI Don\u2019t Care.\u201d In an Instagram post, Sheeran revealed he got in touch with Katseye after hearing \u201cGnarly\u201d for the first time. \u201cI was in Mexico and loved it,\u201d he wrote. \u201cSaid I was a fan and reached out to them to see if I could write them a song.\u201d On Katseye\u2019s \u201cCountdown to Animal\u201d livestream, hosted on the evening of the song\u2019s release, Lara teased, \u201cA very special person wrote it, which is also really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked about the difference between \u201cPinky Up\u201d and \u201cAnimal,\u201d the group members quickly pointed out that they\u2019re actually (and finally) singing on this one, and it\u2019s geared toward more widespread consumption. \u201c\u2018Pinky Up\u2019 is more like a rave in the club,\u201d Daniela said. \u201cBut \u2018Animal\u2019 is more like you\u2019ll listen to it at the grocery store, in the car on the radio, or you\u2019ll hear it at the mall just walking around.\u201d It\u2019s just what Katseye needs, and it proves their ambitions as a group extend beyond brand deals and dance breaks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNot a particularly polarizing artist, Sheeran was the logical songwriter to turn to. He\u2019s still selling out stadiums over a decade into his career, even after wedding ballads like \u201cThinking Out Loud\u201d and \u201cPerfect\u201d pushed many to write him off as corny. More flashy swings, like \u201cShape of You\u201d and \u201cShivers,\u201d have eclipsed the acoustic singer-songwriter craftsmanship of his first two albums. And yet, it\u2019s their success that has allowed him to sustain a career of this magnitude for so long. He\u2019s worked this magic for other artists, too.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Justin Bieber<\/a> returned with Purpose in 2015, he released \u201cSorry\u201d and \u201cLove Yourself\u201d just over two weeks apart. \u201cSorry\u201d served as the big party hit, a Skrillex and BloodPop production with Julia Michaels in the credits. Bieber had already racked up a few like that by this point in his career, including \u201cBeauty and a Beat.\u201d But stripped down to just his vocals and a guitar, \u201cLove Yourself\u201d added new dimension to Bieber\u2019s position in pop. Sheeran originally wrote the song for his album Divide. \u201cGoing from a song that would have never been released to the biggest song of last year,\u201d he said in 2017, \u201cit just shows you that you shouldn\u2019t always write stuff off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tIt isn\u2019t rare for Sheeran to think of other artists while in sessions. \u201cEvery single album that I\u2019ve ever done, I\u2019ve always gone, on the side, \u2018Let\u2019s try and write a song that we can pitch to Rihanna,\u2019\u201d he said last year. While he hasn\u2019t landed a hit with her, his songs have ended up on albums from One Direction<\/a> (the acoustic ballad \u201cLittle Things,\u201d written by Sheeran, followed up the bubbly \u201cLive While We\u2019re Young\u201d in 2012) and Shawn Mendes<\/a>. Sheeran gifted Mendes the hook for what would become \u201cFallin\u2019 All in You\u201d from 2018\u2019s Shawn Mendes. The snap and sway, first-dance-ready ballad remains one of Mendes\u2019 highlights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a perfect alternate universe, Sheeran would have sent him \u201cBad Habits,\u201d too, instead of keeping the hit for himself. The upbeat record would have marked a much needed return to form for Mendes, one of pop\u2019s most consistent hitmakers <\/a>until he started down the confessional singer-songwriter route. Coming from Sheeran, who doesn\u2019t play the main pop-boy role as efficiently \u2014 he\u2019ll always prefer an acoustic guitar, at the end of the day \u2014 it did little to restore the balance in a post-pandemic pop ecosystem dominated by bedroom pop and quarantine hits crafted for TikTok.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPop has been in a peculiar place for a little while now. Newer acts are breaking through with slow-burning hits, but are also struggling to maintain that success over time. Meanwhile, more veteran artists are scoring late-career breakthroughs, or leaning heavily into diaristic releases that trade off on their personal narrative. Some artists are enlisting fewer collaborators \u2014 preferring to write in tight-knit camps with friends \u2014 and taking the songwriting lead themselves more often, like Ariana Grande\u2019s solo effort on \u201cHate That I Made You Love Me.\u201d Still, sometimes great performers aren\u2019t great songwriters. That\u2019s OK. Balance restoration comes through remembering collaboration and timing are key.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore \u201cGabriela\u201d ended up with Katseye, it had been recorded by both Little Mix and Anitta. The song earned them a nomination for Best Pop Duo\/Group Performance at the 2026 Grammy Awards. Way back in 2018, Little Mix launched their fifth album, LM5, with \u201cWoman Like Me,\u201d co-written by Sheeran and Jess Glynne, who began the song for her own album, Always in Between, before passing it along. When the group hit pause to pursue solo projects, Sheeran appeared in the credits for Perrie Edwards\u2019 debut single, \u201cForget About Us.\u201d The track was criticized for being too impersonal, the kind of song anyone could sing. Sometimes that\u2019s the point. At least it\u2019s catchy and she\u2019s actually singing.<\/p>\n

\n\tBetween HYBE and Geffen, Katseye have too many resources at their disposal to add duds to their discography. In about two weeks, the girl group will release its third EP, Wild, featuring both \u201cPinky Up\u201d and \u201cAnimal.\u201d The EP release model has allowed Katseye to hedge the debut album conversation for a while, but the day will come eventually. When it does, it wouldn\u2019t hurt to see what else someone like Sheeran might have up their sleeve. It could be another hit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been two years since the Netflix series Pop Star Academy brought Katseye together, and the girl…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,976,18,117,19,17,741,40432,13129,139334],"class_list":["post-619020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-ed-sheeran","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-justin-bieber","tag-katseye","tag-one-direction","tag-shawn-mendes"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117034392383603982","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}