Songfacts®:

• On "Spark," Ed Sheeran takes us on a journey of resilience and self-discovery. Despite facing overwhelming personal challenges - from his wife's cancer diagnosis to the loss of his best friend, Jamal Edwards, and the burden of a plagiarism lawsuit - Sheeran offers a message of hope and renewal.
• We'll build a fire, we'll torch our old life
  And hope that the spark survives
  
  During his performance at Eventim Apollo in London on March 28, 2023, Ed Sheeran premiered "Spark" and shared that the song delves into the concept of moving on from a difficult period of personal turmoil. "You know in movies when people have breakups and they put everything into the fire and go, 'It's a new dawn'?" he said. "I feel like that's a healthy thing sometimes, to move on and be like, 'That was then and this is now.'"
  
  The lyrics in this chorus are 'We'll build a fire, we'll torch our old life and hope that the original spark of what made it amazing survives and we'll just move on from it.'"
• Ed Sheeran co-wrote "Spark" with Aaron Dessner of the New York band The National. Sheeran's friend, Taylor Swift, introduced him to the American musician after he collaborated with the pop star on her Folklore, Evermore and Midnights albums.
• Dessner played the Prophet synthesizer, bass synthesizer, tambourine, shaker, piano and guitar. The other musicians are:
  
  Yuki Numata Resnick: violin
  Clarice Jensen: cello
  Dave Nelson: trumpet
  Doveman: Mellotron, piano
  J.T. Bates: drums
  Bryce Dessner: synthesizer, orchestration
  
  Bryce Dessner is The National guitarist and twin brother of Aaron Dessner. He orchestrated several of the tracks on Taylor Swift's Folklore and Evermore albums.
  
  Pianist Thomas "Doveman" has worked with Aaron Dessner on several previous occasions, including Taylor Swift's Folklore song "The 1" and Gracie Abrams' Good Riddance track, "Difficult."