IT WAS under a New York sky that Joshua Grant got to thinking about home. The teenager had been living away for the first time and suddenly felt the calling of Edinburgh from halfway across the world.

That longing evolved and began to carry its own tune. It wasn't long before the gifted singer was sitting on his latest single – aptly titled Edinburgh.

On Friday, the track will be released and will follow-up from the lyric video unveiled earlier this week. The track is not simply a love-letter to the city but is a personal reflection of Grant's formative years and the experiences that he takes with him.

It is perhaps no surprise, then, that he started writing the song while he was thousands of miles away. Grant had taken up an internship with the New York Times and was living in student accommodation.

Indeed, the song might not have come about at all. Grant had hoped to bring his guitar with him to the states – the prospect of busking in Central Park was an experience not to be missed. However, he found it would have been much too expensive with the airline charging a small fortune to transport it.

"I had withdrawal symptoms," he tells The Weekender. "After a few days I went to the Guitar Centre – which was the biggest guitar shop I had ever seen in my life – and I bought myself a Yamaha."

He began busking in Central Park but it wasn't long before the call of the Scottish capital took hold.

Alloa and Hillfoots Advertiser: Joshua Grant took the opportunity to busk in Central Park while he was in New York CityJoshua Grant took the opportunity to busk in Central Park while he was in New York City

Grant says: "I was missing home quite a lot. I wrote some of the lyrics down while I was there and came home and finished it up here.

"Obviously, I came home when everything started to get crazy [with the coronavirus outbreak]. So, I suppose the silver lining is that if I didn't come home at the time then maybe the song wouldn't have come around."

Grant tells the story of the city as seen through the eyes of his younger self. Listeners are given a bit of a whistle-stop tour – taking in Morningside, George Street, Arthur's Seat and Lothian Road. His romanticism is evidently shared by many as hundreds answered a call out to provide personal images of the city to form part of a lyric video for the track.

"It's just life," he says. "The song is about growing up in the capital and how much I love the city and everyone in it.

"The first verse is about friendships – the folk I met growing up won't be forgotten; they are my friends for life. The chorus is about moving away from the city.

"We asked everyone to send in their favourite photos of Edinburgh – images that they think capture the city in all its greatness – so that we could turn it into a lyric video for the song.

"In the end, we got around 300 submissions and it turned out so well. It is essentially a slideshow with the lyrics, but it worked out really well."

With Edinburgh on the verge of release, Grant admitted he is almost ready to unveil another track Never Said It in the near future. He added that the follow-up will be a full-band number with influences coming from the likes of Oasis.