Global sweetheart, Ed Sheeran is 30! We wanted to mark this special birthday by celebrating all of his brilliant achievements over the past three decades.
On the 17th February, 1991, Edward Christopher Sheeran was born in Hebden Bridge, Halifax. His mother, Imogen and father, John were joyous with their new delivery. John was an art curator and lecturer whilst Imogen was a cultural publicist, later becoming a jewellery designer.
In December 1995, the Sheeran family moved to Framlingham, Suffolk. One of his later hits from 2017, Castle on the hill, was said to be subjected on the Framlingham castle from his childhood. Ed’s musicality began at an early age, showing interests in singing as well as a desire to play instruments. At only age four, Ed was performing at the local church and by the age of eleven, he had learned to play the guitar. The love for music only ever seemed to grow for Sheeran as he began writing his own music in correlation with starting high school. On a school report in 2004, Ed was described as a “natural performer.” Within the same year, Ed began recording his own music, independently releasing his first collection of work, “Spinning man.”
Throughout his career, Ed has worked with many famous faces. At the age of fifteen, he started a great friendship with fellow English singer, Passenger, as the pair played the same gig at Cambridge. He left the north and set out with new career prospects to London in 2008. Over the next two years, he made many applications, set on to different paths and continued to try and make his music work.
February 2010 – Ed Sheeran’s big break. At the start of this year, he has posted a video of him singing through SB.TV. This video was then picked up by a big name at the time, Example, who then invited Sheeran to join him on tour. In the same month, he also released his critically acclaimed album ‘Loose Change’ which included one of his most well-known hits to date, ‘The A Team’. Throughout the next few months, he regularly updated to his youtube channel, growing a fanbase at a considerable rate. When visiting Los Angeles in 2010, he was invited to perform at the Foxxhole club, run by Jamie Foxx, which then led to an invite to stay at the American actor’s home.
On January 8th, 2011, Sheeran released another EP, No.5 Collaborations Project, in which he worked with a number of popular grime artists such as: Wiley, JME, Devlin, Sway and Ghetts. The EP was a huge success and gained major attention from the mainstream media due to reaching no.2 on the iTunes charts without any label or promotion. Three months after he released the EP, Sheeran played a free show for fans at the Barfly in Camden Town. Over 1,000 arrived at the venue, eager to watch Sheeran, due to the unexpected population of arrivals, he ended up playing four gigs, wanting to make sure that everyone had an opportunity to hear him. The last of the four gigs, he played in the streets outside after the venue had closed. Following his successes, Sheeran signed a contract to Aslyum Records only a month later.
As we know, the story only grows brighter for Sheeran. On the 10th June 2011, The A Team was finally released as a digital download, serving as a lead single for his album + (pronounced plus) in the September. ‘The A-Team’ was the best-selling debut single and overall eighth-best selling single of the year, selling 801,000 copies. The single also achieved top-ten status in a number of other countries, such as: Australia, Germany, Japan and New Zealand. His album + was released on the 12th September 2011, debuting at number one.
At the 2012 Brit Awards, Sheeran won awards for Best British Male Solo Artist, and British Breakthrough Artist of the year. Over the course of the year, Sheeran wrote songs for not only himself but also for other famous acts, working alongside names such as Taylor Swift and One Direction. He also performed at two notorious events of that year, The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Closing ceremony of The 2012 Summer Olympics.
His successes only grew and on 23rd June, 2014, he released his second studio album ‘x’ (pronounced multiply). Sheeran performed at a huge variety of incredible places around the globe, such as heading the AFL Grand Final in Melbourne and starting his world tour in Osaka, Japan. By the end of the year, his combined streams on Spotify had reached 860 million; making him Spotify’s most-streamed artist as well as achieving most-streamed album for x. In the same year, he was crowned iTunes best selling artist in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand. The album was a huge hit and earned him notorious awards, such as the Ivor Novello Award, Breakthrough Award with Billboard and two more Brit Awards. Probably the most prestigious of them all however was in 2016, when he earned two Grammy’s: Song of the year and Best Pop Solo Performance.
Following the brilliance and rewards of his hard-work, Sheeran decided to take a year-long hiatus, something that was accepted by fans. In the December of 2016, a marketing campaign began. Everything was turning blue on Sheeran’s social media, encouraging fans to anticipate that something was coming. Indeed it was. On the 2nd January, 2017, Sheeran released a 10-second video displaying the album work and the title ÷ (pronounced divide). The album was then released on the 3rd March, debuting at number one in the UK, Germany, Canada, Australia and other major markets. His first week sales hit 672,000, making it the fastest selling album by a male solo artist in the UK, the record is still yet to be beaten. The album went on to beat many more records and the singles were reaching number ones globally. By the 17th March, Sheeran had achieved 10 Top Ten singles from divide on the UK Singles Chart, putting him at the forefront of mainstream attention.
Aside from the music, Sheeran has developed a wonderful home-life. Since 2015, he has been dating Cherry Seaborn, an old childhood friend and former secondary-school classmate. She is said to be the inspiration behind his song ‘Perfect’. The pair announced their engagement in January 2018 before they wed in the January of the following year. On 1st September 2020, Sheeran and Seaborn announced the birth of their daughter ‘Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran. The family now reside in a property named ‘Wynneys Hall’ in Suffolk, a residence that locals refer to as Sheeran-ville due to the number of properties that are based there. There are said to be around 27 properties on the plot of land, bringing the property empire to around £61 million.