...And hoping for a better life

Lionesses 

The A Team is a single of the singer Ed Sheeran, the first extract from the third studio album published June 12, 2011.

This song is about an eighteen years old girl who lives in the drug world.

Ed Sheeran describes the characteristics of this girl (white lips, pale face and burned lungs) who prostitutes herself to afford drugs before killing herself.

In an interview, the singer explains the song's title this way: "A drug like crack cocaine is called a 'Class A drug'. That's in the same category as heroin. Instead of making it clear and just saying what the problem was, I'd say, 'She's in the 'Class A' team.' It was kind of my way of covering up (a person's addiction), I guess, making it a bit more subtle."

The video tells the life of this girl sleeping on a bench in a park.

During the day she is in the streets to sell newspapers, but no one buys them if not a boy (the singer Ed Sheeran). With little money she earns she buys something to eat and she sits in front of a shop window with all the people walking by and she cries. She decides to freshen her make up, put on a shirt and a miniskirt and go into the street. A car stops and she assumes a sensual attitude, gets in the car and goes into a hotel room.

At the end of her work, she takes the money to buy the drug and in the end she commits suicide.

We chose this song for two reasons: the first reason is for the words. We love the way the singer describes the life of this girl. The second reason is the subject: drugs. We think that drugs are a serious problem nowadays, above all for the consequences that drug may have on you for the rest of your life.

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 lately her face seems 

Slowly sinking, wasting 

Crumbling like pastries 

And they scream 

The worst things in life come free to us 

Cos we're just under the upperhand 

And go mad for a couple of grams 

And she don't want to go outside tonight 

And in a pipe she flies to the Motherland 

Or sells love to another man 

It's too cold outside 

For angels to fly 

Angels to fly 

Ripped gloves, raincoat 

Tried to swim and stay afloat 

Dry house, wet clothes 

Loose change, bank notes 

Weary-eyed, dry throat 

Call girl, no phone 

An angel will die 

Covered in white 

Closed eye 

And hoping for a better life 

This time, we'll fade out tonight 

Straight down the line 

And they say 

She's in the Class A Team 

Stuck in her daydream 

Been this way since 18 

But lately her face seems 

Slowly sinking, wasting 

Crumbling like pastries 

They scream 

The worst things in life come free to us 

And we're all under the upperhand 

Go mad for a couple of grams 

And we don't want to go outside tonight 

And in a pipe we fly to the Motherland 

Or sell love to another man 

It's too cold 

For angels to fly 

Angels to fly 

To fly, fly 

Or angels to die.

Glossary

Struggling: to struggle in a difficult situation. 

Upperhand: vantage point of superiority, over an opponent. 

Day dream: dreaming with a open eyes, fantasying. 

Sinking: a person with a shock, upset. 

Crumbly: object that quickly crumbles. 

Mad: person with a mental disorder, mentally ill. 

Motherland: country, nation in which someone was born. 

Stuck: a person locked in a situation. 

Afloat: an object that floats, which remains on the water surface. 

Raincoat: a piece of clothes that protects from water. 

Freshen: to remake a make up