Ed Sheeran

Biography

Edward Christopher Sheeran, was born on February 17, 1991 in Hebden Bridge, England. Known by its stage name Ed Sheeran, is a British singer and songwriter. At his young age, he began to sing in the church he attended and also learned to play the guitar. At sixteen he dropped out of high school, and moved to London to pursue an artistic career. After releasing an EP independently in early 2011, it caught the attention of Elton John who put him in touch with the Asylum Records label and signed a recording deal. In September 2011 he released his debut album, which was commercially successful and on the UK record music chart. The album consists of the simple one "The A Team" that was nominated to a grammy for song of the year. In 2012 Sheeran won the British artist revelation awards and British male soloist at the Brit Awards. He acted as the opening act for Taylor Swift on his Red Tour tour for several months in 2013 and in 2014 opted for the Grammy Awards Best New Artist Award.

Early life (1991-2005)

Grew up in Framlingham, a town in the county of Suffolk in England. He is of Irish descent by his father; Has an older brother named Matthew, who studied music at university and works as a classical music composer. Sheeran is the son of John, an art teacher, who worked as a museum conservator in the 1980s, and Imogen, a cultural publicist and jewelry designer. In 1990 her parents founded an independent art consultancy called Sheeran Lock, which ran until 2010. As a matter of job, John and Imogen travel constantly through several cities in England, and on the move they used to play music. Sheeran remembers that in her childhood she listened to records of Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton, and that the album Irish Heartbeat (1988), of Van Morrison, induced to the music. At age four Sheeran began to sing in the local church choir, and to eleven to play the guitar. At the age of fourteen, she made her first musical compositions while studying at the Thomas Mills High School in Framlingham. He is a graduate of the Youth Music Theater UK and the Access to Music, where he received lessons in artistic development. He also received acting training at the National Youth Theater in London.

Beginnings of his artistic career (2005 - 2011)

In 2005, even in high school, Sheeran began recording music and released her extended play (EP) debut The Orange Room independently. When he was fifteen he met Passenger and together they held several concerts in Cambridge.

Between 2006 and 2007 Sheeran released two studio albums, and in 2008, at age sixteen, she dropped out of high school and moved to London to pursue an artistic career. When settling in the city of London began to realize small musical performances in the nights of open microphone.

 In 2008, with intentions of being an actor, Sheeran did a test for the series Britannia High, of ITV1; But when he was rejected, he decided to focus on music. Sheeran was the guitar technician of a band called Nizlopi, for which he also acted as opening actress on several occasions.

In 2009 he released an EP titled You Need Me, before embarking on a musical tour with Just Jack.

In February of 2010 Sheeran released a video of the song "You Need Me, I Do not Need You" on SB.TV, and in March of the same year released the Loose Change (2010) EP that included his simple debut "The A Team ». Sheeran, overwhelmed by the monotony of doing the same musical performances in England, decided to make a trip to Los Angeles for a month in order to continue with his musical activities. Upon arriving in the city, the artist performed a concert in Inglewood, which had good reactions from the public. In the show was the manager of the open mic night Jamie Foxx, who invited him to act for them in a local and after performing his staging, caught the attention of the manager of actor Foxx, and on board reserved a Acting for Sheeran on Foxx's Foxxhole radio show, who was also delighted with the artistic skills Sheeran showed on the show; Both his admiration for the singer who gave him lodging in his house in Hollywood and also allowed the artist to use his recording studio. During 2010 Sheeran began to gain notoriety through the Internet and YouTube, and her fan base grew. After returning to the United Kingdom, the video for "You Need Me, I Do not Need You" became viral on the Internet and regularly airs on SB.TV; Where he was seen by rapper Example, and being fascinated, invited Sheeran to act with him in a series of musical shows that would take place by the United Kingdom in October of 2010.

Sheeran at the beginning of January of 2011 put on sale the No. 5 EP Collaborations Project that counts on the vocal participation of artists like Wiley, Jme, Devlin, Sway and Ghetts. The extended play became a success in the United Kingdom when entering the number 2 position of the list of the most downloaded albums of iTunes and in the 46 position of the list of British albums without any promotion. After the success of the EP in the United Kingdom, Sheeran attracted the attention of Elton John, who was delighted with the EP, called the artist and put him in contact with his record label Atlantic Records, and a recording agreement . After winning the contract with Atlantic, Sheeran announced a free concert in the London borough of Camden Town, also signed a recording deal with Asylum Records.

International success with "The A Team" (2011-2013)

In June 2011 the artist's simple debut with a record label, "The A Team", was released after being released on the British television show Later ... with Jools Holland, BBC, at the end of April of the same year . "The A Team" entered the third place of the list of British singles by 57 607 copies sold in its first week. The subject also gained favorable positions among the top ten of the popularity ranks of Australia, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and the Netherlands. In the United States "The A Team" reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. At the end of 2011, "The A Team" was the eighth best selling single of the year for 801 000 copies. In June Sheeran acted as the lead artist on the BBC Introducing stage and at the 2011 Glastonbury Festival.

At the Brit Awards 2012 Sheeran won the British Artist Reveal Awards and British Male Soloist, also opted for the UK British and British Single Awards for "The A Team", respectively. From late March to May 2012 Sheeran acted as the opening act for Snow Patrol on their Fallen Empires Tour tour of the United States. In August Sheeran performed a musical performance at the closing of the 2012 London Olympics by playing a version of Pink Floyd's song "Wish You Were Here."

In 2012 Sheeran after learning that Taylor Swift was in the process of composing her four studio album, Red (2012), while conducting a musical tour of Australia, showed interest in working with her. Swift also discovered her music while touring the same territory, so when Sheeran performed a musical show in Nasville, USA, in 2012 the manager of the artist attended the concert and met with Sheeran to propose an alliance between both performers; Sheeran and Swift began a professional relationship and co-wrote their duet "Everything Has Changed" which was released as a Red single. Sheeran also contributed two songs to One Direction's second studio album Take Me Home, Released in November 2012, one of them called "Little Things", which was published as a cut of the disc and had a success in the United Kingdom when obtaining the position number 1 of the list of British single. Between late 2012 and early 2013 Sheeran toured the United States.

From March to September 2013 Sheeran acted as the opening act for Taylor Swift on the North American stage of her Red Tour musical tour, which featured more than sixty-four concerts. In November 2013 Sheeran released the single "I See Fire", which is included in the soundtrack of the film The Hobbit: Smaug's Desolation. "I See Fire" came in first place in the singles chart for Norway, New Zealand and Sweden and in the top fifteen positions of the UK, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Finland, among others.

Records and world fame (2014-2016)

In early 2014 Sheeran was nominated for Best New Artist in the 56th Grammy Awards. She also chose the album's album of the year for her collaboration on Taylor Swift's fourth album Red (2012). On June 1, 2014, "Sing" was released in the United Kingdom as the lead single from his second album, co-written by the performer along with Pharrell Williams, who also produced it. "Sing" was a success in the United Kingdom, where it became the first Sheeran song that won the number 1 spot on the list of singles in that territory.

On June 23, 2014, Sheeran's record labels released their second studio album,

Following publication, entered number one on more than 10 charts in several countries, including Australia, Germany, the United States, Ireland and the United Kingdom. In the UK happened to be the second disc number 1 of Sheeran in the British album ranquin; In total, entered the number 1 position of the British album ranquin twelve times. × ranked as the best-selling album of 2014 in the UK for 1 689 000 copies and during 2015 also had a great commercial success at the end of the year as the second best-selling album with 971 000 units, only behind Adele's 25 . In all, sold 2.66 copies in the UK, making it the fifth best-selling album of the decade of 2010 and the best-selling thirty-nine-disc of the twelfth century in the UK; In recognition of its sales the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) certified it eight times platinum. In the United States, was Sheeran's first album to be number one on the Billboard 200. In the 2015 album sales chart in the United States, ranked as the fourth best selling album of the year with 1.16 Million copies, and by January 2016 had more than 2.21 million copies in that territory; The RIAA certified it twice platinum. Won four singles among the chart top hits on the Billboard Hot 100: "Photograph", at number 10, "Sing" at No. 13, "Do not" at No. 9 and "Thinking Out Loud" In number 2, respectively. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry - or IFPI by the initials of its name in English, International Federation of the Phonographic Industry - revealed that sold 4.4 million copies during 2014, which made it the third album more sold of that year .

From August 2014 to December 2015, Sheeran embarked on his second music tour Tour in support of his second album, by Europe, America, Asia and Oceania respectively; The performer for the first time performed concerts in South American countries such as Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Chile and Peru. The second single of "Do not" was released in August 2014; Inspired by the love affair between Ellie Goulding and Niall Horan of One Direction. At the end of September 2014 Sheeran published "Thinking Out Loud" as the third cut of . The song was a success in several countries when entering the first position of the popularity ranks of singles of Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, among others. It also ranked among the top five in the Canadian, United States and Spain listings. "Thinking Out Loud" entered the top spot of the British singles list nineteen times, the longest in number one of that ranch of hits, for which he got a mention at Guinness World Records. In the United States, "Thinking Out Loud" ranked No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks, only behind Mark Ronson's "Uptown Funk" with Bruno Mars, and by the end of July 2015 had sold more than 4.3 Millions of copies in the United States. In the 2015 single sales report in the United States, "Thinking Out Loud" appeared as the second best seller.

In 2014, Sheeran's catalog at Spotify garnered 860 million continuous downloads, which is why Spotify named Sheeran the most listened to artist of the year and as the most listened to, respectively. On February 8, 2015 she performed the theme "Thinking Out Loud" in the 57th Grammy Awards with Questlove, Herbie Hancock and John Mayer; Ceremony at which he opted for the album album of the year and best vocal pop album by. On February 25, Sheeran won the British male soloist and British album awards for at the Brit Awards 2015. and in May received the composer's award of the year at the Ivor Novello Awards 2015. On June 27, 2015, Sheeran acted as the opening act for The Rolling Stones at a concert at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City as part of their Zip Code Tour tour. In early July 2015 the artist performed three consecutive sold-out concerts at Wembley Stadium in London, which were part of his second world tour. On August 16, 2015, a television special of the concert titled Ed Sheeran - Live at Wembley Stadium was broadcast through NBC. Sheeran and Ruby Rose hosted the 2015 MTV Europe Music Awards held on October 25, 2015; He won the best live performance and best world stage awards for his shows at the V Festival and Hylands Park in the UK in 2014 respectively. According to IFPI's record sales report for 2015, Sheeran was the second highest-selling artist of the year, just behind Adele. The singer co-wrote "Love Yourself" for Justin Bieber's Purpose (2015) album, which entered the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the first song in which Sheeran participated as a songwriter and reached that position.

At the 2016 Grammy Awards he won the Song of the Year awards and best solo pop vocal performance for "Thinking Out Loud." The artist also was a candidate for the recording of the year and album of the year for his collaboration on the album Beauty Behind the Madness by singer The Weeknd, respectively.

Influences

Sheeran quotes Damien Rice, Nizlopi, Eminem, Bob Dylan and The Beatles as their greatest influences. He says that after attending a small concert of Damien Rice in Dublin in his teens, he was inspired to make compositions, for which he considers Rice one of his "main sources of inspiration". The artist says he loves Justin Timberlake's Justified and FutureSex / LoveSounds, which he partly took as a reference to compose the song "Sing". He claims that he "loves" Irish Heartbeat by Van Morrison and The Chieftains, and claims to be a fan of Morrison's music as a child. He nominated Damien Rice's "Cannonball", "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos, "Stan" by Eminem, "Ricky" by The Game, "Irish Heartbeat" by Van Morrison and the Chieftains, "Guiding Light" by Foy Vance , "Do You Remember" by Jarryd James, "White Foxes" by Susanne Sundfør and "A Million Miles Away" by Rory Gallagher as his favorite songs of all time, which at some point in his life influenced his art.

The sound of their debut album,, is influenced by hip hop and acoustic music, and the lyrics of the songs on the disc talk about the people the artist met during their travels and also life situations. Sheeran has a tenor voice.

Nowadays

On January 6, 2017 Sheeran released two singles titled Shape of You and Castle on the Hill, which would be the first of their third album.