The chances of you getting serenaded by a pop star during your run are low, but never zero. This particular runner went on her Tuesday run along Regent’s Canal in London when English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran (you may have heard of him) floated by on a boat and asked her for a song request–to which she responded, “Tenerife Sea.” The pop star, 33, immediately began strumming his guitar and singing as the jogger slowed to a walk alongside the boat.
Sheeran posted a video to his Instagram. “I was filming a video on the canal today, and played a request. If anyone knows the runner lemme know so we can have their POV video for the lols.”
After he finished the performance, Sheeran gave the runner a thumbs up and said “Have a good rest of your run!”
The jogger was later identified as Nikki Atkins, when her perspective of the private concert was shared on her Instagram story. Multiple cameras can be seen in the boat filming Sheeran. “This was so unexpected and so so beautiful. Thank you thank you,” she wrote in the caption. “This is why we run, girls,” she added.
“It was so random and obviously not what you’d expect,” Atkins said during an interview with BBC Breakfast on Wednesday, revealing what went on in her head during the impromptu jam session. “I actually haven’t been for a run in a few months, so it’s amazing that that happened on my first run back for a little while.”
“I saw someone sitting at the front of a boat–and in my head I thought, oh it looks a bit like Ed Sheeran. I ran onto the canal path just as he was passing, and I was like oh, that is Ed Sheeran–and then he asked me for a song request. I sort of blacked out a little bit, but it was surreal,” she said.
‘Any requests?’
Nikki Atkins spoke exclusively to #BBCBreakfast about the ‘surreal’ moment she was serenaded by Ed Sheeran as she was jogging in Londonhttps://t.co/9EdHVetDne pic.twitter.com/Cd9NLSmck7
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) September 18, 2024
If you were ever looking for motivation to go on your run, this should be the “Perfect” reason.
