Ed Sheeran breaks social media silence to tease new music

After a year in virtual exile from public life, Ed Sheeran has given fans hope for 2017, posting a silent video promising new tunes on Friday.

The teaser for the release of the flame-haired pop star's third album has ended questions about when his long-awaited musical comeback would happen.

The video post on Twitter and Facebook is simply captioned "Hello 2017". It shows Sheeran with a cheeky smile, silently holding up a handwritten sign saying: "New music coming Friday!!"

The Facebook post has gained more than 600,000 likes and 11 million views.

The young singer-songwriter has two albums out already: + (Plus) was released in 2011, and x (Multiply) in 2014.

Sheeran announced he was taking a break from social media one year and five weeks ago, saying he was "seeing the world through a screen and not my eyes", and wanted to spend time travelling.

Rumours of a third album began swirling on December 13 - exactly a year after his exile began - when Sheeran posted an image of a blue square on Instagram, with no hints about its meaning.

He was then seen filming a music video in Suffolk in the United Kingdom.

Sheeran is also rumoured to be a headline act at Glastonbury in 2017, The Sun has reported.

While on his social media hiatus and taking a break from touring in May 2016, Sheeran was snapped relaxing in Queenstown.

Newshub.

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