Born with a love for music in West Yorkshire in 1991, the now 31-year-old Ed Sheeran started playing guitar and writing songs at the age of 11. It’s been said that he was inspired by Damien Rice after he met him backstage at one his concerts and told him to write his own music. Sheeran got right to work and was known in school for being a performer and was voted “most likely to become famous.” Being the ambitious musician that he is, he recorded and sold CDs, putting together his first EP, Orange Room, at the age of 14.
Sheeren decided to move to London with only a backpack and his guitar hoping to get gigs in the big city. After independently releasing the EP, No. 5 Collaborations Project, later in that same year he signed with Asylum Records. In September 2011 he released his first debut album called + (plus), which topped the UK Albums Chart and boasted with his first hit single, “The A Team.”
The following year Sheeran won the Brit Awards for Best British Male Artist and British Breakthrough Act. His second album, x (multiply), broke his first record by topping the charts around the world in 2014 and was named as the second best-selling album worldwide in 2015. Later that year, the album also won Album of the Year at the Brit Awards and he also received the Ivor Novello Award for Songwriter of the Year at the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.
In March 2017 Sheeran released his third album ÷ (divide), which was the best-selling album worldwide. The two ultra-famous singles, “Shape of You” and “Castle on the Hill” broke numerous records in several countries. Sheeran has since released more albums and many hit singles, such as “Bad Habits” in 2021, which also reached worldwide success.
With over 150 million records sold worldwide, Ed Sheeran is a musical phenomenon, and you can catch him in 2023 during his world tour on the following dates: