Ed Sheeran and Philip Barantini fuse music and cinema in Netflix’s boldest one-shot experiment yet.
Netflix has announced One Shot With Ed Sheeran, a groundbreaking musical experience directed by Emmy-winner Philip Barantini.
Streaming November 21, the special captures Sheeran’s songs in one continuous, unbroken take through the streets of New York City.
At first glance, it sounds like a fever dream: Ed Sheeran, guitar slung across his chest, drifting through New York’s chaotic arteries: subway cars rattling, sidewalks pulsing, neon spilling across rain-slicked streets.
This is a city where bizarre stunts are the daily wallpaper: preachers shouting sermons to the unbothered, break-dancers spinning on stained tiles, a man in a Spider-Man suit dangling from the poles.
And yet, Sheeran synchronises in a harmonious hum. Where music blends in tune with the city’s pulse, each chord is delivered in real time, no cuts, no edits.
Just a wandering troubadour threading melody through the concrete jungle’s unruly rhythm. One Shot with Ed Sheeran doesn’t just capture the pandemonium that follows him; it rides the energy of the city itself.
Guiding the camera is Philip Barantini, the visionary who redefined television with Adolescence (2025). His one-take technique turned a harrowing story of youth, violence, and family into an Emmy-winning cultural earthquake.
“The device here is never less than astonishing,” wrote Rolling Stone.
Now, Barantini brings that same relentless immediacy to Sheeran’s music, swapping claustrophobic kitchens and courtrooms for the sprawling unpredictability of New York.
The synergy makes sense. Sheeran’s songwriting has always thrived on rawness. Stripped-back ballads sung to thousands as if whispered to one.
By setting him loose in the wild, Barantini reframes the pop star not as a spectacle, but as a wandering songsmith, colliding with strangers in fleeting, unrepeatable moments.
Upon the streaming platform, Netflix teased: “One singer. One city. One shot.”
The special also arrives on the heels of Sheeran’s eighth studio album, Play and ahead of his Loop Tour. For Barantini, it’s another experiment in pushing form to its breaking point, following Boiling Point (2021) and Adolescence.
For Sheeran, it’s a reminder that beneath the stadium lights, his music still belongs to crowded sidewalks and startled subway passengers.
One Shot With Ed Sheeran premieres November 21 on Netflix, a single take, a single city, a singular artist.
