<P> The song was issued on 7" vinyl exclusively as part of the Black Friday Record Store Day, which was celebrated on 28 November 2014 . The vinyl record included, as a B - side, the live version of "I'm A Mess" which Sheeran performed at the Lightship 95 studio . </P> <P> Emil Nava directed the video accompaniment to the single . Most of it was filmed in the Crystal Ballroom at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California . The video was shot continuously using a 16 mm film camera . </P> <P> Unlike Sheeran's earlier videos, where he assume a low profile, he took the lead role on "Thinking Out Loud". In the video, Sheeran executes a ballroom dance with Brittany Cherry, a contestant from the televised American dance competition, So You Think You Can Dance . The routine was choreographed by Nappytabs and with training help from Paul Karmiryan . While on concert tour, Sheeran spent five hours a day for three weeks to practice with Cherry . </P> <P> The video was released on October 8, 2014 . After first 24 hours, the video had over 2.7 million views on video - sharing website, YouTube . As of September 18, 2017, it has over 1.8 billion views, making it the 21st most viewed video on the site . The music video received four nominations at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards including Video of the Year and Best Male Video . </P>

Who is the girl dancing in thinking out loud