Martin Garrix and Ed Sheeran’s Repeat It finally gets its official release after first being previewed at Ultra Music Festival Miami in 2015

Martin Garrix and Ed Sheeran are finally releasing Repeat It on Friday, May 15, in honor of Martin’s 30th birthday, bringing one of EDM’s longest-running unreleased IDs into an official release after more than a decade. The track first began in 2014, before Martin Garrix previewed it at Ultra Music Festival Miami in 2015, where fans came to know it as Rewind Repeat It. For years, the collaboration stayed caught between its festival-history status and the label complications connected to the period before Martin Garrix became independent. Now, after fan uploads, release petitions, renewed 2026 teasers, and an official confirmation from Martin Garrix, Repeat It is finally leaving its unreleased-ID status behind as the collaboration prepares for its official release on Friday, May 15.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by STMPD RCRDS (@stmpdrcrds)

How Martin Garrix and Ed Sheeran’s Repeat It All Started in 2014

Martin Garrix and Ed Sheeran were first linked to Repeat It in 2014, long before the track became known through live rips, fan uploads, and years of release speculation. The earliest public mention came during Miami Music Week, when Martin Garrix spoke about working with Ed Sheeran while he was still in the Spinnin’ Records period of his career. At that stage, the song was not being presented as a finished single. Reports around the Miami press event said the track still needed more work and would also need approval from Ed Sheeran’s label, which now reads like the first public sign of the release complications that followed it for years. It also places the collaboration in a very specific 2014 context: Martin Garrix was still close to the global breakout of Animals, while Ed Sheeran was entering the x era, before dance collaborations had become a regular part of pop release cycles.

The creative history behind Repeat It also points back to Los Angeles, where Martin Garrix later said he and Ed Sheeran met and began exchanging ideas. Ed Sheeran sent over a voice note with a melody, giving Martin Garrix a vocal idea to work around from the start. That detail matters because the track was not simply a festival instrumental with a pop vocal added later. It began through an exchange between a producer closely associated with big-room festival records and a songwriter whose work was centered on melody, phrasing, and direct lyric writing. Ed Sheeran later said he had finished his first EDM song with Martin Garrix, while Martin Garrix explained that people found the pairing strange at the time because their styles did not naturally align. That early contrast gave Repeat It a different place in both artists’ histories before fans heard it under its original ID name, Rewind Repeat It, at Ultra Music Festival Miami in 2015.

Why Rewind Repeat It Got Stuck Between Label Timing and Old Contract Issues

The reason Rewind Repeat It stayed unreleased was not simply that Martin Garrix and Ed Sheeran moved on from the song. The problem started much earlier, when the track still needed approval from Ed Sheeran’s label before it could come out. By 2017, Martin Garrix had explained that the collaboration had been planned as an official single, but the release became difficult because the labels could not agree on timing. Part of that issue came from Ed Sheeran’s own release schedule, with reports saying his side wanted to prioritize other Ed Sheeran songs first. For a track that was already being played in festival sets, that delay mattered because unreleased IDs rely heavily on timing. Once the original window passed, Rewind Repeat It was no longer just waiting for a date. It was caught between two artist calendars, two label systems, and a release plan that had already lost its first chance.

The situation became even harder because the song belonged to an earlier part of Martin Garrix’s career. Rewind Repeat It was made while Martin Garrix was still tied to the Spinnin’ Records era, before he became independent and launched the next phase of his career through his own label structure. By 2018, Martin Garrix was openly saying that he did not think the song would ever be released, with the issue being linked to old rights and contract complications from that period. That is why the long wait around Repeat It became different from a normal unreleased ID story. Fans kept asking for it because they had already heard the song, but the release was stuck behind business details that could not be solved by demand alone. The track stayed alive through live recordings, fan uploads, and petitions, but its official release needed the rights, label timing, and artist-side approvals to finally line up.

How Repeat It Finally Returned in 2026

The 2026 return of Repeat It did not begin with a standard single announcement. It started with Martin Garrix and Ed Sheeran being seen together again in New York City, where footage of them filming and walking backwards immediately pulled the old Rewind Repeat It connection back into focus. That detail mattered because it was not a random sighting between two artists who once worked together. The backwards movement tied directly to the song’s original title, and after years of old live rips carrying the track online, the New York clips gave fans the first real sign that the collaboration was being treated as an active release again.

The rollout became more direct after that. Martin Garrix previewed a new version during an Instagram Live in April, while reports said the track had been reworked from the 2015 Ultra Music Festival Miami version and shortened from Rewind, Repeat It to Repeat It. In early May, the teasing continued through social posts, the Repeat It (2026) audio name, and billboards in Santo Domingo that asked Ed Sheeran to release the song. The final confirmation came from Martin Garrix himself, who announced that Repeat It with Ed Sheeran would drop at midnight worldwide on Friday, May 15. After more than a decade of fan uploads, label delays, and unfinished release windows, the song is now returning as an official single instead of another clip passed around as one of EDM’s most requested IDs.

Why Repeat It Matters Beyond Its Release Date

For Martin Garrix and Ed Sheeran, Repeat It carries a history that makes the release feel different from a standard collaboration rollout, especially because the song has already lived through more than a decade of public attention before reaching its official release. It began with the 2014 studio work, became a fan-known ID after the 2015 Ultra Music Festival Miami preview, and then stayed in circulation through live rips, fan uploads, release petitions, and years of questions around whether the track would ever be cleared. That history gives Repeat It a specific place in Martin Garrix’s catalog, not just as a new single, but as a track tied to one of the most followed unreleased chapters from his festival-era rise.

The release also matters because the collaboration still reflects the unusual pairing that made people pay attention in the first place. When Martin Garrix and Ed Sheeran first worked on the song, Ed Sheeran was not regularly linked to EDM records, while Martin Garrix was still closely associated with big-room festival stages after Animals. In 2026, both artists are far beyond that original career moment, but Repeat It still carries the contrast that gave the track its early interest: Martin Garrix bringing the production into his dance music world and Ed Sheeran bringing the topline and vocal writing that made the song feel different from a typical unreleased festival ID. That is why its official release is not only about finally getting the file onto streaming platforms, but about closing a release story that fans have been following since Ultra Music Festival Miami in 2015.