MUSIC<
>CAREER
Early Career
Ed began recording music in 2004, and independently released his first collection of work, Spinning Man. He moved to London in 2008, and began playing in small venues. He released another EP in 2009, You Need Me and also did a few collaborations with Essex singers, Leddra Chapman and CeeLo Green. In February 2010,Ed posted a video through SB.TV, and rapper Example invited him to go on tour. In the same month, he also released his critically acclaimed Loose Change EP, which featured his future debut single, "The A Team". In the autumn of 2009, Ed began studying music at the Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) in Guildford, Surrey as an undergraduate, though it is not clear how long he remained at the college.
In April 2010, Ed bought a ticket to Los Angeles, with no contacts other than one poetry night. He played open mic nights all over the city, before he was spotted at The Foxxhole by Jamie Foxx, who was so impressed that he offered Sheeran the use of his recording studio and the bed of his Hollywood home for the rest of his stay. Throughout 2010, Sheeran began to be seen by more people over the internet through YouTube and his fan-base grew.
On 8 January 2011, he released another independent EP, No. 5 Collaborations Project, featuring grime artists such as Wiley, Jme, Devlin, Sway and Ghetts. With this, he successfully gained mainstream attention for reaching number 2 in the iTunes chart without any promotion or label, selling over 7,000 copies in its first week. Three months later, Ed put on a free show to fans at the Barfly in Camden Town. Over 1,000 fans turned up, so he played four different shows to ensure everyone saw a gig, including a gig outside on the street after the venue had closed. Later that month, Ed was signed to his first label, Asylum Records.
13 year old Ed Sheeran busking in the street of Galway
First Studio Album & First International Success
On 26 April 2011, Sheeran appeared on the TV music show, "Later... with Jools Holland", where he performed his debut single, "The A Team". Six weeks later, "The A Team" was released as a digital download in the UK. It entered the UK Singles Chart at number three, selling over 58,000 copies in the first week. It was the best selling debut single and the overall eighth-best selling single of 2011, selling 801,000 copies. The second single, "You Need Me, I Don't Need You" peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart, followed by his third single "Lego House" which also reached top ten in lots countries. "Drunk", released on 19 February 2012, became Ed's fourth consecutive top ten single in the UK, peaking at number nine.
Sheeran released + on 12 September 2011. + debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart for sales of 102,000 copies. By end of 2011, sales of the album in the UK stand at 791,000; it became the second best-selling debut album and the ninth biggest-selling album there. The album has been certified platinum six times by the British Phonographic Industry, denoting shipments of 1,800,000 copies.
In late 2012 and early 2013, he headlined a US tour of 6,000–9,000 capacity venues. From March to September 2013, Sheeran played at arenas and stadiums across North America as the opening act for Swift's The Red Tour. In October 2013, Sheeran headlined three sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden, which has a capacity of 18,200.
Ed Sheeran's Debut Album Goes Double Platinum
Ed Sheeran Performs 'Drunk' On The Graham Norton Show
Ed Sheeran opening Taylor Swift's Red Tour Concert by performing "Everything Has Changed"
X ( Multiply )
"Sing", the lead single of his second studio album, X (Multiply) , was released on 7 April 2014. "One", the second single-an acoustic ballad, was released on 16 May 2014,also marked the first of several promotional singles released leading to the album release. By early June 2014, "Sing" had earned Ed his first number-one single in the UK. The album itself was released worldwide on 23 June 2014. In a span of three years, Sheeran wrote more than 120 songs for the album, x peaked at number one in both the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200. To support the album, Sheeran embarked on a world tour starting on 6 August 2014 at Osaka, Japan. On 27 September 2014,
"Thinking Out Loud" was released on 24 September 2014 as the album's third single. where for the first time Ed took the lead role on his music video with the single's accompaniment, where he performed a ballroom dance. It became his second single to reach number one in the UK, and spent eight weeks at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100. In 2014, combined streams on Sheeran's catalogue in Spotify reached 860 million; Spotify named him the most-streamed artist and x the most-streamed album. In the same year, the album also earned Sheeran the distinction of being iTunes' biggest-selling artist in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand.
X was nominated for Album of the Year at the 57th Grammy Awards. In May 2016, x was named the second best selling album worldwide in 2015, behind 25 by Adele.
Ed Sheeran collected his first Grammy Awards in February 2016
Ed dance in his music video "Thinking Out Loud"
A Year Break & ÷ ( Divide )
On 13 December 2016, after a year long hiatus and social media break, Sheeran tweeted a picture and changed his Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to a light blue, implying the release of a new album – each of Sheeran's previous albums were a single coloured background with a solid mathematical symbol. On 1 January 2017, Sheeran uploaded a video on social media websites which shows him holding a piece of paper with the words "New Music Coming Friday" written on it. On 2 January 2017, he posted a 10-second video on Twitter and other social media showing what is assumed to be the cover design of his forthcoming album entitled ÷ ("divide") which was released 3 March 2017. With first week sales of 672,000 it is the fastest selling album by a male solo artist in the UK, and third fastest in UK chart history behind Adele and Oasis. It also had the biggest first week sales of 2017 in the US.
Ed's post on his instagram with a piece of paper saying "New Music Coming Friday"
On 6 January, Sheeran released two singles, "Shape of You" and "Castle on the Hill"; the theme of the latter single is about Sheeran's upbringing in his home town of Framlingham in Suffolk, with the castle referring to Framlingham Castle. Both singles went on to break the Spotify day one streaming record, with a combined total of over 13 million streams in 24 hours. On 13 January, "Shape of You" and "Castle on the Hill" entered the UK Singles Chart at number one and number two, the first time in history an artist has taken the top two UK chart positions with new songs. On 17 January, "Shape of You" debuted at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, while "Castle on the Hill" entered at number six; this made Sheeran the first artist ever to have two songs simultaneously debut in the US top 10.