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Ed Sheeran has contributed to Ronan Keating’s upcoming album

Ed Sheeran has contributed to Ronan Keating’s upcoming solo album.

After the ‘Shivers’ hitmaker played guitar on the Boyzone star’s last record, 2020’s ‘Twenty Twenty’, the Irish chart-topper has confirmed he’s “done something” on the follow-up, which is due out later this year.

Ronan told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column of his upcoming projects: “I have got an album in November and a tour in January, February and March. It’s a concept record.

“Indirectly Ed has done something on the new album but I can’t tell you any more at this stage.

“He played ­guitar on the last one on a couple of songs.”

‘Twenty Twenty’ saw the ‘Life Is A Rollercoaster’ hitmaker dip his toes into country, as he joined forces with Australian actress-and-singer Clare Bowen – who is best known for her role as Scarlett O’Connor in the ABC/CMT musical-drama television series ‘Nashville’ – on the duet ‘Love Will Remain’.

The collaboration came about as Ronan’s model wife Storm is a massive fan of ‘Nashville’ and so he decided to DM Clare, who he hailed as having a “Dolly Parton-esque tweak” to her vocal, on social media to see if she would be up for the job.

The 44-year-old star said at the time: “The song was hands down a duet from the minute it was written. My wife Storm and I love the TV series ‘Nashville’ and I thought that Clare Bowen who plays one of the leads in the show would be a perfect fit for this track.

“We had chatted a bit on social media about collaborating, and then I realised that this was the song for her! She has a wonderfully fresh tone to her voice with a Dolly Parton-esque tweak, which was exactly what I wanted for the song.”

Shania Twain, Robbie Williams, Emeli Sande and Nina Nesbitt also duetted with Ronan on the LP.

While he paid tribute to late Boyzone bandmate Stephen Gately – who died in 2009, aged just 33 – on the emotional number ‘The Big Goodbye’.