Ed Sheeran becomes Sade Olutola’s inspiration at Readings Festival 2026

Sade Olutola explained how Ed Sheeran inspired her Arrow Heart EP during an interview backstage at Reading 2026.

The rising south London pop artist made her first appearance at the festival on August 29, performing on The Canopy stage.

Afterwards, she joined NME backstage to discuss her first EP, which was released in February. The concept for Arrow Heart came from an idea she had as an 11-year-old in her Ed Sheeran phase, something she laughed about when reminded of it.

“When I was 11, I discovered Ed Sheeran – my friend Ella put me on,” Olutola said. “When he toured, he would draw the icon of what he was trying to do – like a plus sign on his guitar or a divide or multiply. Then he would also name his guitar. So I did the same thing, but I was like, ‘I need to come up with my own cool version.’”

She continued, “So, I drew an arrow heart on my guitar, and I called her Mexi, and I wrote a tracklist – it was at the top of my songwriting book, and it was called Arrow Heart.”

“[Now], I thought, ‘Oh, I’m releasing my first EP now and I want to pay homage to her’. That was the first time I had been ambitious to want to put out a project, even though it didn’t happen [at the time],” Olutola explained.

She also got candid about the story behind the EP’s opening track 2099, which finds her time travelling from 1625 to 2099 in the lyrics.

“That song makes no sense,” she laughed before explaining the story behind it. “When I’m writing songs, I translate my emotions into pictures and imagery. Right in that moment, I had just found out that my partner had been unfaithful to me, so I was feeling very angry.”

Aside from making her debut Reading appearance, Sade Olutola has had a packed summer on the stage. Sharing what she’s realised from festival season so far, she said, “It’s interesting the amount of preparation that goes into this, and then I’ve done a 20-to-30 minute set, and it’s over. It’s like, ‘OK, we go home now, but it’s really stressful before that.’ I’ve grown to appreciate my team a lot more.”