All about Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran was born on Feb. 17, 1991 in Halifax, Yorkshire. His father John is an art curator while his mother Imogen is a jewelry designer. He has one brother Matthew, who is also a musician.

His family later moved to Framlingham in Suffolk, England. This was where he grew up and it later became the inspiration for his song Castle On The Hill. It was also where he started singing as a child and where he learned to play the guitar. He now lives in London but has a farm in Framlingham.

Like most young musicians Sheeran accepted all sorts of gigs he could get while recording and releasing his own albums. One of these was the EP No. 5 Collaborations Project in 2011. This gave him his first hit in iTunes and turned him into what we now call an “Internet sensation.” It caught the eye and ear of his future manager Elton John and brought in a lot of gigs. One of these was at the Foxhole in Los Angeles and he so impressed owner Jamie Foxx that the actor invited Sheeran to stay in his L.A. home.

He signed up with Asylum Records where he recorded his album debut Plus +. The album has since then been declared seven times Platinum in the UK. It includes the hits The A Team, You Need Me I Don’t Need You, Lego House and Drunk.

His first hit single was The A Team, which he performed with Elton John at the 2013 Grammy Awards, where it was nominated for Song of the Year. Music lore has it that the Grammy show was not interested in having the relatively unknown Sheeran perform solo. So Elton offered himself for a duet and got Sheeran in.

He co-wrote and performed Everything Has Changed with Taylor Swift for her album Red. She later asked him to open for her Red tour around arenas and stadiums in the US. It was his first major stint and Sheeran got a red tattoo to commemorate this milestone.

He has since then also composed for other artists like Love Yourself for Justin Bieber and Moments and Little Things for the now defunct One Direction. He collaborated with Eminem for River and again with Swift for End Game.

His first solo arena stint was a sold out three nights at the Madison Square Garden in New York in 2013. He released his second album Multiply × in 2014. A massive success, it included the singles One, Don’t, Photograph and Thinking Out Loud. He was named Most Streamed Artist with 860 million streams for all of his songs and Multiply, the Most Streamed Album in Spotify.

He released Divide ÷ last year with the singles Shape Of You, Castle On The Hill and Perfect. The album made No. 1 in all platforms worldwide. Sheeran was named Most Streamed Artist 6.3 billion times and Multiply the Most Streamed Album 3.1 billion times and Shape Of You, the Most Streamed Single with 1.4 billion times in Spotify. Divide and Shape Of You were later proclaimed as the biggest sellers of the year in the US and the UK.

He is one of the world’s biggest-selling music artists. He has sold over 26 million albums and 50 million singles.

The International Federation of Phonograph Industry (IFPI) named him Artist of the Year for the outstanding sales performance of his album Divide ÷.

He was recently honored with a Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his contributions to music.

He has won the prestigious Ivor Novello Award twice. The first for The A Team for Best Song Musically and Lyrically in 2012 and Songwriter of the Year in 2015 for Multiply ×.

He has two 2018 Grammy Awards for Best Pop Vocal Album for Divide ÷ and Best Pop Solo Performance for Shape Of You. He also won two Grammys in 2016, Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year for Thinking Out Loud.

He was named Male Solo Artist of the Year and his album Multiply × was Album of the Year at the Brit Awards in 2015. He also won for Best Male Solo Artist and as British Breakthrough Act in 2012.

Presented by Smart and produced by AEG Presents and Ovation Productions, Sheeran will be performing in his Divide ÷Tour Manila to be held at the Mall of Asia Concert Grounds on April 8.

This is his second visit to the Philippines. Sheeran was here previously in March 2015 in the course of his Multiply × tour.