What do you think The A Team means?

Ed Sheeran: The A Team Meaning

Album cover for The A Team album cover

Song Released: 2011


The A Team Lyrics

White lips, pale face
Breathing in snowflakes
Burnt lungs, sour taste
Light's gone, day's end
Struggling to pay rent
Long nights, strange men

And they say
She's in the Class A Team
Stuck in her daydream
Been this way since 18
But...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Dec 22nd 2011 !⃝

    The plot of the song consists of a young prostitute who suffers from abuse and drug addiction and becomes weaker throughout the song, and then dies at the end. These words in the chorus of the song represent her struggles that she has had in life and that others have said about her.
    'The worst things in life come free to us':
    This shows that the girl has undergone abuse/threat/fear and considers these the 'worst things in life'. By saying they 'come free', it shows that she doesn't have a choice and it is least desirable. It also displays irony as the prostitution industry includes the trading of money- however she feels these things are worse.
    'Cos we're just under the upper hand'.
    This can signify her class, showing that the middle class have the 'upper hand' and control her. It can also show that there is always a chance of just getting abused by what is more powerful than you.
    'And go mad for a couple grams'.
    This shows her desire to get high and how her addiction takes over her life and decisions.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    a_lo
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    May 24th 2016 !⃝

    A song written of a female prostitute addicted to crack cocaine. She must sleep with men to feed her sad addiction, and cannot stop. Inspired by real-life stories and people Sheeran encountered whilst visiting a homeless shelter.

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Nov 28th 2014 !⃝

    This song is about a young girl who's homeless possibly, living out in the cold and is addicted to drugs, as said in the lyrics 'white lips pale face breathing in snowflakes'. The drugs are burning her lungs and killing her but she keeps taking them. She doesn't earn enough money and struggles to pay her rent. To earn enough money for her drugs she is a prostitute and sells her body to men. Being on the class a team means she's on drugs and she's been this way since 18 years old. Never been good enough for anyone and anything, she is alone. It talks about how the world is too evil and cruel for an angel like her to be happy and live her life. "An angel to die covered in white' everything got to much for her and she eventually killed herself with the drugs coarsing through her veins and covering her body in white.

  4. anonymous
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    Jan 12th 2019 !⃝

    This song is about a poor girl who was trapped in a world of drugs and prostitution.

  5. anonymous
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    Feb 19th 2017 !⃝

    This song is about a woman who is a drug addict. She basically will do anything to get more drugs, including picking up random strangers. In the video it makes clear that she is homeless,most likely because she spent all her money of drugs. In the music video, near the end, she hitches a ride with a random guy, and they end up hooking up (probably happens a lot to her). It shows multiple scenes, like taking off her leggings, them touching each other in 'dirty' ways, etc. But at the end she gets this drug, which she consumes and it kills her. It is a great video that matches the song, which makes it that much easier to interpret the song's meaning.

  6. anonymous
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    Jan 18th 2016 !⃝

    Ed Sheeran explains in an interview that when he sang at a homeless shelter a girl named angel (hence the 'It's too cold outside for angels to fly') approached him and explained her story.
    She is a homeless women who lives as a prostitute to earn money. The women also struggles with a drug addiction. The title (The A team) refers to crack being a class A drug and he uses this instead of blatantly saying she uses crack and hence disguises the addiction in his choice of wording. Some of the story is different to that of Angel's as Ed didn't wish to steal the story she openly told him.

  7. anonymous
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    Oct 26th 2015 !⃝

    i think that it's about a girl who can't take the life that she's been given any longer so she decides to do drugs so that she doesn't have to take the pain of the world any longer. Also i think that she's tired of people judging her way of life even though it's all she's ever known to do to survive.

  8. anonymous
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    Sep 20th 2015 !⃝

    The girl is in poverty, but is intelligent and Ed hopes that an "angel" will come save her so that she can be her true self.

  9. anonymous
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    Jul 14th 2015 !⃝

    Ed Sheeran has an amazing voice, and a poetic way of creating lyrics. He basically saying she a crack whore prostitute. I love this song, no matter the meaning of it.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  10. amyreilly
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    May 5th 2015 !⃝

    ed sheeran wrote this song after going with a friend to help out at a homeless shelter. he started singing and this homeless women called angel, started talking to him and telling him her story. everything in this song is about angel and her drug addiction and prostitution.

  11. anonymous
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    Feb 24th 2015 !⃝

    'with a pipe she flies to the motherland, and sells love to another man' is strongly suggesting that she gets high and sells sex to people, just to afford more drugs. 'breathing in snowflakes' also suggests snowflakes being cocaine. as the further the song plays, Ed reveals more and more clues leading to the conclusion that this girl, young woman, hates her life. Ed also initiates that this is someone he knows, and someone he has tried to help before.

  12. anonymous
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    Dec 17th 2014 !⃝

    The song is about a young woman with a good heart who is homeless and a prostitute because of her drug addiction. My friend told me she thought it was about dead people, but it's not.

  13. anonymous
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    Dec 7th 2014 !⃝

    Drugs.

  14. anonymous
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    Sep 25th 2014 !⃝

    I thought it was about dead people but it's actually about drug addiction,

  15. anonymous
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    Jul 8th 2014 !⃝

    I like this song because I can relate to it. I am a recovering addict and when I watch this video it brings tears to my eyes. I know exactly ehat this song means because ive been there. Fortunately i didnt die. She was a beautiful girl with an addiction and would go as far as prostitution to get drugs. It killed her inside to have to do it thats why she crys in the bed in the video. In my opinion she was smoking heroin but who knows. I got to see ed sherran live the other night in Philadelphia and i cried when the song came on. Very touching and real. I hope addicts today are inspired by this video to change their lives around before its too late. Live sincerly. Amanda morelock

  16. anonymous
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    Jun 17th 2014 !⃝

    The A team because she does drug in the class A like cocaïne or crack

  17. anonymous
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    May 17th 2014 !⃝

    It is a song about a woman who is addicted to drugs and has to be a prostitute to pay for her addiction.

  18. anonymous
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    Apr 22nd 2014 !⃝

    This song is about a prostitute who is addicted to drugs. She spent all her money, so she's homeless. Instead of using the money she gets from prostitution to pay for a home, she uses it to buy more drugs.

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