"Perfect" is a song by English singer-songwriter

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

from his third studio album, '' ÷'' (2017). After the album's release, it charted at number four on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. On 21 August 2017, ''Billboard'' announced that "Perfect" would be the fourth single from the album. The song was serviced to

pop radio Contemporary hit radio (also known as CHR, contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format that is common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by ...

on 26 September 2017 as the third single from the album in the United States (fourth overall). Originally peaking at number four in March 2017, the song re-entered the UK charts later that year. It eventually reached number one on the

and the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in December 2017. "Perfect" became the UK Christmas number-one song for 2017 and also peaked at number one in sixteen other countries, including

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The second version of the single, titled "Perfect Duet", with American singer

Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Beyoncé's boundary-pushing artistry and vocals have made her the most influential female musician of the 21st century, according to ...

, was released on 1 December 2017. Another duet with Italian singer

Andrea Bocelli Andrea Bocelli (; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor and multi-instrumentalist. He was born visually impaired, with congenital glaucoma, and at the age of 12, Bocelli became completely blind, following a brain hemorrhage resulting fro ...

, titled "Perfect Symphony", was released on 15 December 2017. The song and its official music video received three nominations at the

2018 MTV Video Music Awards The 2018 MTV Video Music Awards was held on August 20, 2018 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The 35th annual award show aired live from the venue for the 12th time, the most of any previous venue in its history. Cardi B led the list of n ...

Composition and production

"Perfect" was the first track Sheeran wrote for his third studio album '' ÷''. The song is a romantic ballad focusing on

traditional marriage Traditional marriage may refer to: *Marriage and its customs and practices in a particular culture * Christian views on marriage * Islamic views on marriage *Opposite-sex marriage, used primarily by opponents of same-sex marriage. *Traditional ma ...

, written about his wife-to-be Cherry Seaborn, whom he knew from school and then reconnected with when she was working in New York. Sheeran revealed that the inspiration for the lyrics came after visiting

James Blunt James Blunt (born James Hillier Blount; 22 February 1974) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. A former reconnaissance officer in the Life Guards regiment of the British Army, he served under NATO during the 1999 Kosovo War. After l ...

's house in

Ibiza Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its l ...

, where the two singers had listened to the rapper

Future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...

's music at six in the morning. He said: "Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favorite song, which happened to be Future's "

March Madness The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

"... I booked the studio for the day, and I had that and I was like, right, let me just flesh that out. And the song happened and was sort of finished that day. I knew it was special." Sheeran produced the song himself with help from Will Hicks. It was recorded with strings orchestration from his brother Matthew Sheeran. This is the first time the brothers had collaborated on a song as it was the final wish of their grandmother to see the brothers working together before she died. The full string orchestration was later used for the recording with

. Another version with slightly different lyrics featuring

Camila Cabello Karla Camila Cabello Estrabao (; ; born March 3, 1997) is a Cuban-born American singer and songwriter. She rose to prominence as a member of the girl group Fifth Harmony, which became one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. While in ...

and Nicholas Galitzine is included in the Cinderella (2021 soundtrack). The song is written in the key of

A major A major (or the key of A) is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The key of A major is the only k ...

(

G major G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative minor is E minor and its parallel minor is G minor. The G major scale is: Notable compositi ...

in live performances) with a

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

of 63.5 beats per minute in time (if not using triplets) or time (if using triplets). "Perfect" moves at a chord progression of A–Fm–D–E. The vocals span from E₃ to A₄ in the song.

Commercial performance

In March 2017, Sheeran broke the record set by

Frankie Laine Frankie Laine (born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio; March 30, 1913 – February 6, 2007) was an American Singing, singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned nearly 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to hi ...

in 1953, occupying all of the top five positions in the United Kingdom, and placing nine songs in the top ten of the

. Also, every single one of the sixteen tracks from his new album '' ÷'' entered the top twenty. "Perfect" peaked at number four and the song debuted at that position, selling 62,599 copies. After Sheeran's performance of "Perfect" on ''

The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for ''Pop Idol'' (2001–2003 ...

'' on 26 November 2017, the song reached a new peak in the UK, advancing to number three and selling 32,507 units. The

version, released on 1 December 2017, drove consumption of the track to 89,359 sales (including 45,460 from sales-equivalent streams) as it became Sheeran's second number-one song from ''÷'', following "

Shape of You "Shape of You" is a song by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. It was released on 6 January 2017 as one of the double lead singles from his third studio album '' ÷'' (2017), along with "Castle on the Hill". The dancehall and R&B-infused ...

" – and his fourth number-one single in total. With UK sales of 1,048,313, "Perfect" became Sheeran's tenth million-selling single. It became 2017’s

Christmas number one In the United Kingdom, Christmas number ones are singles that top the UK Singles Chart in the week in which Christmas Day falls. The singles have often been novelty songs, charity songs or songs with a Christmas theme. Historically, the volume ...

single on December 22, 2017. It beat the likes of

Wham! Wham! (briefly known in the US as Wham! U.K.) were an English pop duo formed in Bushey in 1981. The duo consisted of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. They became one of the most commercially successful pop acts of the 1980s, selling more ...

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

ft. Ed Sheeran,

Clean Bandit Clean Bandit are an English electronic music group, formed in Cambridge in 2008. They have had four number 1 hits and ten top 10 hits on the UK Singles Chart. They direct and produce their own music videos, many of which have been nominated for ...

ft.

Julia Michaels Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julio and Julius. (For further details on etymology, see the Wiktionary entry "Julius".) The given name ''Julia'' had been in use throughout Late Antiquity (e.g ...

(Clean Bandit had gotten the previous year’s Christmas number one with “ Rockabye”),

The Pogues The Pogues were an English or Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band fronted by Shane MacGowan and others, founded in Kings Cross, London in 1982, as "Pogue Mahone" – the anglicisation of the Irish Gaelic ''póg mo thóin'', meaning "kiss my arse". T ...

ft.

Kirsty MacColl Kirsty Anna MacColl (10 October 1959 – 18 December 2000) was a British singer and songwriter, daughter of folk singer Ewan MacColl. She recorded several pop hits in the 1980s and 1990s, including "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He ...

Rita Ora Rita Sahatçiu Ora (born Rita Sahatçiu; 26 November 1990) is a British singer and songwriter. She rose to prominence in February 2012 when she featured on DJ Fresh's single, "Hot Right Now", which reached number one in the UK. Her debut studi ...

and

Mariah Carey Mariah Carey (; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Referred to as the " Songbird Supreme", she is noted for her five-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style and signature use of the whi ...

to the Christmas number one spot and held the summit for six consecutive weeks before being displaced by Eminem's "

River A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

", which features Sheeran as a guest artist. As of 2021, it is the longest runner on the UK Singles top 75, with 130 weeks spent on that chart, breaking a 49 year old record that had previously been held by "My Way" by

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

(124 weeks). In the United States, ten songs from ''÷'' debuted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in March 2017, including "Perfect" at number thirty-seven. In October, the song ascended to number eighteen and became the third song from ''÷'' to reach the country's top twenty. It also lifted 4–3 on

Digital Songs The Digital Songs or Digital Song Sales chart (previously named Hot Digital Songs) ranks the best-selling digital songs in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published by '' Billboard'' magazine. Although it originally sta ...

(50,000 downloads sold), 34–30 on Radio Songs (45 million) and 46–35 on

Streaming Songs The Streaming Songs chart is released weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and lists each week's top streamed radio songs, on-demand songs and videos on leading online music services in the United States. The chart represents one of the three component ...

(11.5 million). On 30 October 2017, "Perfect" soared to the top ten on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The ballad gained in all metrics, holding at number three on Digital Song Sales (53,000, up 7 percent) and climbing 30–22 on Radio Songs (53 million, up 16 percent) and 35–27 on Streaming Songs (13.1 million, up 14 percent). On 20 November 2017, "Perfect" pushed to a new ''Billboard'' Hot 100 high (8–7) and reached the Radio Songs top ten (17–10; 73 million, up 16 percent). Sheeran scored his seventh Radio Songs top ten and the third from his album ''÷'', following "Shape of You" and "

Castle on the Hill "Castle on the Hill" is a song by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. It was released on 6 January 2017 as one of the double lead singles from his third studio album '' ÷'' (2017), along with "Shape of You". "Castle on the Hill" was writt ...

". The next week, "Perfect" hit top five on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, becoming the second-highest-charting hit from his album ''÷'', following "Shape of You". "Perfect" became Sheeran's third top five hit overall; his first, "

Thinking Out Loud "Thinking Out Loud" is a song by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, recorded for his second studio album, '' ×'' (2014). It was written by Sheeran and Amy Wadge, and produced by frequent collaborator Jake Gosling. It was released in the ...

", rose to number two in 2015. "Perfect" remained at number three on Digital Song Sales (60,000, down 6 percent) and powered 10–6 on Radio Songs (80 million, up 10 percent) and 38–15 on Streaming Songs (18.9 million, up 61 percent). On 4 December 2017, "Perfect" pushed to a new number three ''Billboard'' Hot 100 high, and became Sheeran's third number one on Digital Song Sales (69,000, down 1 percent). He previously topped the chart for a week in 2015 with "Thinking Out Loud" and for ten weeks earlier in 2017 with "Shape of You". "Perfect" reached number one on Digital Song Sales, aided by the first few hours of tracking for its duet version, released before the end of the sales (and streaming) tracking week at 7 p.m. ET on 30 November. For the full week, the Beyoncé version accounted for 18 percent of the song's sales. On 11 December 2017, after a full tracking week, the single topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, becoming Sheeran's second number-one song in the United States and Beyoncé's sixth as a solo act. "Perfect" remained at number-one on the Digital Songs chart with sales of 181,000 copies (up 202 percent). The duet version accounted for 63 percent of the song's total sales for the week. "Perfect" also rose 11–3 on the Streaming Songs chart with 34.9 million US streams, up 87 percent, while on Radio Songs, it pushed 4–3 (102 million in audience, up 14 percent). The duet topped the Hot 100 for five weeks. The original version of the song would later take over at the top on the week ending 20 January 2018. After six total weeks at number one, the song was dethroned by "Havana" by Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug. "Perfect" was the seventh best-selling song of 2017 in the US, with 1,340,000 copies sold that year. It was the best-selling song of 2018, with 1,300,000 copies sold. The original version peaked at number one in Austria, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. After the Beyoncé duet release, "Perfect" also reached number one in Australia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden and the United States. Sales of the original version along with sales of the duet version with Beyoncé and Andrea Bocelli also attributed to the song reaching #1 in the UK in late 2017. The song is Sheeran's fourth to reach number one in Australia, and held the country's top spot for eight consecutive weeks before "

God's Plan God's Plan may refer to: Theological concepts * God's plan, or the Will of God * Salvation, the saving of a soul from sin and its consequences ** Plan of salvation, a Christian concept describing God's plan to save humanity ** Plan of salvation ( ...

" by

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

displaced it. It went to number one as well in Canada, becoming Sheeran's second number one there and Beyoncé's first. As of 3 January 2019, the song has sold 207,000 digital copies in Canada.

Music video

On 22 September 2017, a lyric video for "Perfect" was released on Sheeran's

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel. The music video for "Perfect" was released on Sheeran's YouTube channel on 9 November 2017. The video stars

Zoey Deutch Zoey Francis Chaya Thompson Deutch ( ; born November 10, 1994) is an American actress. She is daughter of director Howard Deutch and actress-director Lea Thompson. She gained recognition for her roles in the film '' Everybody Wants Some!!'', the ...

and was directed by Jason Koenig, who also directed the video for "

". The video was filmed at the Austrian ski resort of

Hintertux Tux is a municipality in the Schwaz district in the Austrian state of Tyrol. Geography The parish of Tux covers the higher and largest part of the Tuxertal, a side valley of the Zillertal that branches off at Mayrhofen. The territory of the par ...

and shows Sheeran and Deutch going on a ski trip with friends, with the two dancing in the snow and ending up in a cabin together. Ross McNeilage who writes for

MTV UK MTV is a British pay television channel focusing on reality TV and music programming operated by Paramount Networks UK & Australia. The channel launched as part of MTV Networks Europe localisation strategy in 1997. MTV UK (previously MTV UK & I ...

called the video a "Christmas dream" for its wintery visual. While praising the simple story and the video's cinematography, McNeilage noted that Zoey Deutch acts opposite to the superstar as his love interest and we watch as they "coyly flirt until they realise their love for one another and slow dance in the snow together." As of October 2022, the music video has received over 3.2 billion views on YouTube, making it the 26th most viewed video on the site. It received nominations for Song of the Year,

Best Pop Video The MTV Video Music Award for Best Pop was first given out in under the name of Best Pop Video, as MTV began to put several teen pop acts in heavy rotation. Nominations, however, were not just limited to pop acts, as dance, R&B, pop/rock, and reg ...

and Best Direction at the

Remixes

In November 2017, Sheeran released an acoustic version of "Perfect" and two remixes by Mike Perry and

Robin Schulz Robin Alexander Schulz (; born 28 April 1987) is a German musician, DJ and record producer. On 4 February 2014, he released the first single from his debut album, a remix of "Waves" by Dutch hip hop artist Mr. Probz. This remix later received ...

Formats and track listings

Credits and Personnel

–

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

and

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

* Laurie Anderson, Meghan Cassidy, Rachel Roberts, and Kotono Sato –

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

* Mandhira De Saram, Matthew Denton, Martyn Jackson, Magnus Johnston, Marije Johnston, Simon Hewitt Jones, Patrick Kiernan, and Jan Regulski – violin I * Fenella Barton, James Dickenson, Alison Dods, Kirsty Mangan, Jeremy Morris, and Deborah Widdup – violin II * Leon Bosch –

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

* Nick Cartledge –

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

and

piccolo The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...

* Nick Cooper, Katherine Jenkinson, and Tim Lowe –

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

* Charys Green –

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

* Will Hicks –

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, and programming *

Jay Lewis Jay Gardner Lewis (1914 – June 4, 1969) was a film director, a film producer and writer born in Warwickshire, England. In 1940, he founded the documentary film company Verity Films with Sydney Box. Filmography Director *''A Home of Your O ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Pino Palladino Giuseppe Henry "Pino" Palladino (born 17 October 1957) is a Welsh musician, songwriter, and record producer. A prolific session bassist, he has played bass for acts such as The Who, the John Mayer Trio, Nine Inch Nails, Gary Numan, Jeff Beck ...

– bass * Matthew Sheeran – string arrangements * Hilary Skewes – coordination * John Tilley – piano and

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications

}

Release history

Perfect Duet

On 1 December 2017, a duet by American singer

titled "Perfect Duet" was made available worldwide. The song is a stripped down, acoustic version of the original, with Beyoncé singing the second verse from a female perspective. Sheeran stated the song was Beyoncé's favorite from the album, and reached out to her to re-record the song. Beyoncé agreed, and the two recorded the song in May 2017.

Live performances

Beyoncé performed her verse as part of the setlist during the

On the Run II Tour The On the Run II Tour was the second co-headlining stadium tour by American singer Beyoncé and rapper Jay-Z. The tour began on June 6, 2018, in Cardiff and ended on October 4, 2018, in Seattle. This is their first tour together since On the Run ...

in 2018. On 2 December 2018, almost exactly a year since the release of the duet version, Ed Sheeran and Beyoncé performed the first-ever live rendition of "Perfect Duet" at the 2018 Global Citizen Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Perfect Symphony

An operatic version of "Perfect" with

, titled "Perfect Symphony" and sung partly in Italian, was released on 15 December 2017.

Composition

A fully orchestral version of the song was recorded at

Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music c ...

although only parts of it were used in the original release of the song. The full orchestral version was used in the duet with

Music video

On 15 December 2017, a music video for "Perfect Symphony" was also released.

Track listing

Charts

Release history

Notes

References

External links

Composition and production

Commercial performance

Music video

Remixes

Formats and track listings

Credits and Personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications

Release history

Perfect Duet

Live performances

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Perfect Symphony

Composition

Music video

Track listing

Charts

Release history

See also

Notes

References

External links