Ed Sheeran 1,334

Ed Sheeran is a singer/songwriter who was born in Halifax, England but was raised in Suffolk, England. He’s known for his energetic live shows, which involve him using a loop pedal and sometimes throwing some raps in for good measure.

Ed’s success story began with him playing music in older people’s homes. He first was picked up by a record producer when busking in the USA. He performed nearly a thousand gigs and street performances before getting the recognition he deserved. Unsigned projects such as Loose Change and Songs I Wrote with Amy relied on the production of long-term collaborator Jake Gosling and signaled the start of their hugely successful musical relationship. Soon he’d made countless industry friends.

Teaming up with some of the biggest names in UK grime – Wiley, Ghetts, Jme and more – he released the No. 5 Collaborations Project in January 2011, and it reached number 46 on the UK Singles Chart. One of the songs, “Little Lady” (feat. Mikill Pane), was a fan favourite, so Ed made a more radio-friendly solo version entitled “The A Team” and the rest is history. The song now has over a million sales in the UK and two million in the US.

Picked up by Asylum/Atlantic Records, Sheeran released another single entitled “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You.” He released his debut album + in September 2011, to great critical acclaim. It topped the UK Albums Chart and has sold nearly two million copies in the UK alone.

Many successful singles, features, and an EP with Yelawolf later, Ed scored his first UK #1 with the Pharrell Williams-produced “Sing”. Then came his 7x Platinum sophomore album x, which features a slew of hugely successful singles including “Don’t”, “Thinking Out Loud” and “Bloodstream”.

After an entire year of social media silence, Sheeran announced his comeback on New Year’s Day 2017. His third album, ÷, was released in March and included the hit singles “Castle on the Hill” and “Shape of You”.

Ed Sheeran was the most streamed artist on Spotify in 2017 with 47 million monthly listeners. His album, ÷, was the most streamed album in the world with 3,1 billion streams and the song “Shape of You” is the most streamed song ever with more than 1,4 billion streams.

Sheeran largely spent 2018 and the first half of 2019 on tour, but he also found time to work on his next album. It was released in July of 2019 and was titled No.6 Collaborations Project.

He announced another hiatus in December 2019, coming back in September 2020 with an announcement that he and Cherry are having their first child named Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran. He then released Afterglow in December 2020, saying that it isn’t the first single of his new album, it’s just a song he loves.

In June 2021, he released a new single named “Bad Habits” which is the lead single for his 5th album, = (Equals). In August 2021, he announced that his next album will be called = (Equals). In August 2021, he announced that his next album and will be released on 29th October 2021, with a promotional single called “Visiting Hours” for his close friend that died 6 months prior. Another single called “Shivers” is released the following month. Along with the album’s worldwide release, another single, “Overpass Graffiti” is released with its official video. In December, he released a Christmas special collaboration song with Elton John called “Merry Christmas” which is only included in the Christmas edition of Equals..

In May 2022, he released the repackaged edition of = (Equals) with includes 10 additional songs that weren’t in the standard edition, including Penguins and One Life from the 2019 film Yesterday, I Will Remember You and Welcome To The World.

In March 1st 2023, he announced that his 6th studio album will be called “- (Subtract)”, which will be released on May 5th 2023. In March 24th 2023, he released the lead single of Subtract named “Eyes Closed”. In April 21st 2023, he released another single called “Boat”. In May 5th 2023, Subtract was released as a visual album featuring 14 music videos of each track.