Edward Christopher Sheeran , MBE (born 17 February 1991) is an English singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Sheeran was born in Halifax , West Yorkshire, and raised in
Framlingham , Suffolk. He attended the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford as an undergraduate from the age of 18 in 2009. [4][5] In early 2011, Sheeran independently released the extended play, No. 5 Collaborations Project . After signing with Asylum Records , his debut album, + (read as "plus"), was released on 9 September 2011 and has since been certified seven-times platinum in the UK. The album contains the single " The A Team ", which earned him the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. [6] In 2012, Sheeran won the Brit Awards for Best British Male Solo Artist and British Breakthrough Act . [7]
Ed Sheeran
MBE
Sheeran performing in February 2013
Background information
Birth name
Edward Christopher Sheeran
Born
17 February 1991 (age 26)
Halifax , West Yorkshire, England
Origin
Framlingham , Suffolk, England
Genres
Pop [1] folk pop [2][3]
Occupation(s)
Singer-songwriter record producer guitarist
Instruments
Vocals guitar
Years active
2004–present
Labels
Asylum Atlantic Elektra
Associated acts
Taylor Swift One Direction James Blunt
Zeph Ellis Eminem
Website
Sheeran's popularity abroad began in 2012. He made a guest appearance on Taylor Swift 's fourth studio album, Red . [8] "The A Team" was nominated for Song of the Year at the
2013 Grammy Awards , where he performed the song with
Elton John. [9][10] He spent much of 2013 opening for Swift's
The Red Tour in North America dates. [11] His second studio album, x (read as "multiply"), was released on 23 June 2014.
[12] It peaked at number one in the UK and the US. In 2015, x won the Brit Award for Album of the Year , and he received the Ivor Novello Award for Songwriter of the Year. [13] His single from x , " Thinking Out Loud ", earned him two Grammy Awards at the 2016 ceremony: Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance .
Sheeran's third album, ÷ (read as "divide"), was released in March 2017. The album debuted at number one in the UK, the US and other major markets. The first two singles from the album, " Shape of You " and " Castle on the Hill ", were released in January 2017 and broke records in a number of countries, including the UK, Australia and Germany, by debuting in the top two positions of the charts. He also became the first artist to have two songs debut in the US top 10 in the same week. By March 2017 Sheeran had accumulated ten top 10 singles from ÷ on the UK Singles Chart, breaking Scottish DJ
Calvin Harris 's record of most top 10 UK singles from one album. His fourth single from ÷, " Perfect", reached number one in the UK and Australia, while "Perfect Duet", an acoustic version featuring Beyoncé , reached number one in the US. Sheeran appeared on Debrett's 2017 list of the most influential people in the UK. [14]
As an actor, Sheeran has portrayed recurring roles on The Bastard Executioner and Home and Away . He also appeared as a Lannister soldier on Game of Thrones .
Early life
Sheeran was born in Halifax , [15] on 17 February 1991. [16] When he was a child, he moved with his family to
Framlingham in Suffolk. [17] He has an older brother named Matthew, [18] who works as a composer. Sheeran's parents, John and Imogen, hail from London; his paternal grandparents are Irish, [19][20][21] and Sheeran has stated that his father is from a "very large" Catholic family. [22] John is an art curator and lecturer, and Imogen is a culture publicist turned jewellery designer. [20][23] His parents ran Sheeran Lock, an independent art consultancy, from 1990 to 2010. [24]
Sheeran sang in a local church choir from the age of four, learned to play the guitar at a very young age during his time at Rishworth School , [25] and began writing songs while at
Thomas Mills High School in Framlingham. [26][27] He is a patron of the Youth Music Theatre UK[28] and of Access to Music , where he studied Artist Development course. [29][30] He was accepted at the National Youth Theatre in London as a teenager. [31][32] Sheeran is a second cousin of Northern Irish broadcaster Gordon Burns , [33] who hosted the British game show The Krypton Factor . [20]
Music career
2004–2010: Career beginnings
Sheeran performing at the Ipswich Arts Festival in July 2010
Sheeran began recording music in 2004, and independently released his first collection of work, Spinning Man . [A] He has been friends with fellow English singer, Passenger , since he was 15, with the two playing on the same gig in Cambridge.
[35] He moved to London in 2008, and began playing in small venues. In 2008, he auditioned for the ITV series, Britannia High . [36] He also opened for Nizlopi in Norwich in April 2008, after being one of their guitar technicians. [27] He released another EP in 2009, You Need Me , just before going on tour with Just Jack . He also did a few collaborations with Essex singer, Leddra Chapman , including CeeLo Green 's " Fuck You ". In February 2010, Sheeran posted a video through SB.TV , and rapper Example invited Sheeran to tour with him. In the same month, he also released his critically acclaimed Loose Change EP, which featured his future debut single, " The A Team ". [37] In the autumn of 2009, Sheeran began studying music at the Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) in
Guildford , Surrey as an undergraduate, [4][5] though it is not clear how long he remained at the college.
Sheeran began to be seen by more people over the internet through YouTube and his fan-base grew, with him also getting credit from The Independent newspaper, England football captain Rio Ferdinand and Elton John. [38] He played a Station Session in St. Pancras International in June 2010.
[39][40] The episode is unavailable from the official Station Sessions channel. [41] Sheeran also self-released two other EPs in 2010, Ed Sheeran: Live at the Bedford and Songs I Wrote with Amy , which is a collection of love songs he wrote in Wales with singer, Amy Wadge . [42] In 2010 he was in Los Angeles and was invited to perform at The Foxxhole, a club run by actor Jamie Foxx , which ended with an invitation to stay at Foxx's home. [43]
On 8 January 2011, Sheeran released another independent EP, No. 5 Collaborations Project , featuring grime artists such as Wiley , Jme , Devlin , Sway and Ghetts . [44] With this EP, Sheeran 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. [45] Three months later, Sheeran put on a free show to fans at the Barfly in Camden Town . Over 1,000 fans turned up, so Sheeran 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, Sheeran was signed to Asylum Records . [45]
2011–2013: + and international success
Sheeran at Academy 1 , Dot to Dot Festival , Manchester, June 2011
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. The release served as the lead single from Sheeran's debut studio album, + (read as "plus"). [46] "The A Team" 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. [47] The lead single also became a top ten hit in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway and the Netherlands. During a headline set in the BBC Introducing tent at Glastonbury Festival 2011 , Sheeran announced that " You Need Me, I Don't Need You " would be released on 26 August as the second single from the album. The second single peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart. [48] " Lego House " was released as the third single, [49] reaching the top ten on Australian, Irish, Scottish, New Zealand Singles Charts, Flemish Ultratop 50 and the Wallonian Ultratip . " Drunk ", released on 19 February 2012, became Sheeran's fourth consecutive top ten single in the UK, peaking at number nine. [50]
Sheeran released + on 12 September 2011. The album received generally favourable reviews from music critics. [51]
+ debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart for sales of 102,000 copies. [52] 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. [53] The album has been certified platinum six times by the British Phonographic Industry, denoting shipments of 1,800,000 copies. [54] As of March 2012, the album had sold 1,021,072 copies in the UK. [55] The album also reached the top five in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the US. [56][57]
[58]
Sheeran at the
Frequency Festival in Austria, August 2012
The song, " Moments ", on the debut album by boy band One Direction, released in November 2011, was co-written by Sheeran. [59] On 21 February, at the 2012 Brit Awards , Sheeran won the Brit Awards for Best British Male Solo Artist, and British Breakthrough Act of the Year. [60][61] On 10 January 2012, it was announced that Sheeran would support
Snow Patrol on their US tour from late March until May. [62] His song, " Give Me Love ", was featured in the episode " Dangerous Liaisons" of The Vampire Diaries . [63] At the Ivor Novello Awards in May 2012, Sheeran's "The A Team" bested
Adele 's " Rolling in the Deep " and Florence and the Machine 's " Shake It Out " for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. [64] Sheeran performed "The A Team" at the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II concert held on The Mall outside
Buckingham Palace on 4 June 2012 and a cover of Pink Floyd's " Wish You Were Here " at the closing ceremony of the
2012 Summer Olympics on 12 August 2012. [65]
Sheeran on stage in Sydney, Australia, February 2013
Taylor Swift contacted Sheeran after hearing his music while touring Australia in March 2012. [66] He later co-wrote and provided vocals for " Everything Has Changed ", a single featured on Swift's fourth studio album, Red . Sheeran also contributed two songs to One Direction's second studio album, Take Me Home, released in November 2012; the single " Little Things " became the group's second number-one in the UK. [67] Sheeran's album peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 , while "The A Team" reached No. 16 on the US Billboard Hot 100 . [66] In late 2012 and early 2013, he headlined a US tour of 6,000–9,000 capacity venues. [66] "The A Team" received a nomination for Song of the Year at the 2013 Grammy Awards . [68] Elton John , who runs Sheeran's management company, canvassed the award organisers to get Sheeran a performance slot at the ceremony but was told that Sheeran alone was not high-profile enough. John decided to appear with Sheeran to circumvent this problem.
[69]
From March to
