In 2005, Sheeran started publishing some EP albums. The first one has been named "Orange Room EP". He continued publishing EPs until 2010 when he released "Songs I Wrote with Amy". It was the last EP released before publishing his number one popular album "+".
He then moved to London in 2008 to start a music career. He first played in various events and also made an EP. Then he signed a contract with a record company, Atlantic Records.
In 2011 he made his first album, called "+". The album went to number one in the music rankings of many countries and had also been certified double platinum. Some of the songs on this album have been successful, such as "The A Team" and "Lego House" (leaked as the third single of the album in November 2011). Also, the song "You Need Me, I Don't Need You" was released as the second single in August before the album came out. As the fourth single, "Drunk" was out in January 2012. Finally, the song "Give Me Love" was released as the sixth and final single of "+", on 26 November. From this album, his first single "The A Team" has been recently nominated in the Song of the Year category for the 2013 Grammy Awards. Sheeran was nominated in many categories at the 2013 BRIT Awards.
Sheeran performed at the 2012 Olympic Games Closing Ceremony on 12 August. He performed a cover of the song Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd.
He collaborated with Taylor Swift on her fourth album "Red", doing a duet with her on the song "Everything Has Changed". He has also written songs for One Direction. He wrote the song "Moment" and gave it to One Direction in 2011. He co-wrote two songs that were on their second album "Take Me Home". He first gave them the song "Little Things" that he had written with his friend Fiona Bevan when he was 17 years-old. As well as this, co-wrote the song "Over Again".
"Don't", Sheeran's #3 song on his album "×" (pronounced "multiply"), was released in 2014 and was nominated for several awards. The song was about how Ellie Goulding was cheating on him with One Direction's Niall Horan. In the song, it says, "it's not like we were both on tour. We were staying on the same hotel floor." Goulding did, in fact, cheat on him while they were staying in the same hotel. Sheeran thought it was very easy to forgive Goulding after he found out about it.
The most successful single from "×" was "Thinking Out Loud", which reached number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and finished at the number-two song of 2015 in the United States. Sheeran won Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance for the song.
Sheeran collaborated with Justin Bieber on Bieber's album "Purpose". He co-wrote the song "Love Yourself", which became a number-one hit for Bieber in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia, and the song finished as the number-one song of 2016 in the US.
Sheeran's third studio album, "÷" ("divide"), was released on 3 March 2017. He released the two singles "Shape of You" and "Castle on the Hill" in January 2017. "Shape of You" became his first number-one hit on the "Billboard" Hot 100 when it entered at the top of the chart. The song has reached number one in several countries around the world, and "Castle on the Hill" has become a top-ten hit. Sheeran became the first artist to have songs enter at numbers one and two at the same time on the UK Singles Chart when the first single was at the top and "Castle on the Hill" was at number two. His song <nowiki>"Galway Girl"</nowiki> has reached the number one position in the Scotland and Ireland singles charts. All of the album's songs were within the top 20 of the UK Singles Chart.
In December 2017, Sheeran released the single "Perfect". He later released an acoustic duet version with singer Beyoncé and an orchestral version with Andrea Bocelli. The song went on to top the charts of several countries worldwide.
In May 2019, Sheeran released the song "I Don't Care" (with Justin Bieber) as the first single from his then-upcoming album, "No. 6 Collaborations Project". The song reached number one in Australia and the UK and number two in Canada and the US. The album also includes the songs "Cross Me" (with Chance the Rapper); "BLOW" (with PnB Rock, Bruno Mars, and Chris Stapleton); and "South of the Border" (with Camila Cabello and Cardi B).
Ed Sheeran has won many prizes, for example the award for Best British Male Solo Artist at the 2012 BRIT Awards. He has also won four Grammy Awards.
Despite his popularity and fame, Sheeran has been spotted smoking several times. In an interview with Ryan Seacrest, published on YouTube on 5 March 2014, Sheeran revealed that smoking is his worst habit. After ten years as a smoker, he now claims to be smoke-free. However, in an article published on the Daily Mail website, on 19 March 2015, he was spotted smoking a roll-up cigarette, outside a hotel in Brisbane. He has since quit smoking again.
Sheeran announced that he became engaged to his girlfriend, Cherry Seaborn, over Christmas 2017. They married the following year.
Italian Libya
Italian Libya was a colony of the Kingdom of Italy, from 1911 to (officially) 1947. Italy Libya in 1911 from the Ottoman Empire. Libyan Muslims continued fighting against the Christian Italians for some years, mainly during World War I.
Fighting increased after the dictator Benito Mussolini took power in Italy. Idris (later King of Libya) fled to Egypt in 1922. From 1922 to 1928, Italian forces under General Badoglio waged a "punitive pacification" campaign. Badoglio's successor in the field, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, accepted the commission from Mussolini on the condition that he was allowed to crush Libyan resistance without having to follow either Italian or international law. Mussolini reportedly agreed immediately and Graziani intensified the oppression. Some Libyans continued to defend themselves, with the strongest voices of dissent coming from Cyrenaica. Omar Mukhtar, a sheikh of the Sennusi tribe, became the leader of the uprising.
After a much-disputed truce on 3 January 1928, the Italian policy in Libya reached the level of full-scale war, including deportation and concentration of people of northern Cyrenaica to deny the rebels the support of the local population. After Omar Mukhtar's capture September 15, 1931 and his execution in Benghazi, the resistance petered out. Limited resistance to the Italian occupation crystallized round Sheik Idris, the Sennusi Emir of Cyrenaica.
By 1934, Libya was fully pacified and the new Italian governor Italo Balbo started a policy of integration between the Arabs and the Italians. New laws in 1939 allowed Muslims to join the National Fascist Party and in particular the "Muslim Association of the Lictor" ("Associazione Musulmana del Littorio"). The 1939 reforms also allowed the creation of Libyan military units within the Italian army. During the North African Campaign of World War II this brought strong support for Italy among many Muslim Libyans, who enrolled in the Italian Army
Governor Balbo created "Libya" in 1934, with the unification of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan in a single country. He developed the new "Italian Libya" from 1934 to 1940, creating a huge infrastructure including 4,000 km of roads, 400 km of narrow gauge railways, new industries, and many new agricultural villages.
The Libyan economy prospered, mainly in the agricultural sector. Even some manufacturing activities were developed, mostly related to the food industry. Many building were made. Furthermore, the Italians made modern medical care available for the first time in Libya and improved sanitary conditions in the towns. It was also created a huge web of connections to Italy, by sea and by air (like the Linea dell'Impero, an air route that united Libya with Rome and with Ethiopia/Somalia).
Howard Christie wrote that: