Ed Sheeran

**Edward Christopher Sheeran** MBE (/ˈʃɪərən/; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, he was brought up in Framlingham, Suffolk and began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently released the extended play, *No. 5 Collaborations Project*. He signed with ~~Asylum Records~~ Interscope Records in 2019, and Atlantic Records (which is coincidentally the same record label he's in in real life). He is also Hayley Williams' long lost younger sibling.

## Life and Career

### Early Life and Career Beginnings

Edward Christopher Sheeran was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England on 17 February 1991. His early childhood home was on Birchcliffe Road in nearby Hebden Bridge. His father was a curator at Cartwright Hall in Bradford and his mother worked at Manchester City Art Gallery. In December 1995 he moved with his family from Hebden Bridge to Framlingham in Suffolk, where he attended the independent Brandeston Hall preparatory school (now Framlingham College Prep School), then Thomas Mills High School, also in Framlingham. He has an older brother named Matthew, who works as a composer. Sheeran's parents, John and Imogen, are from London. His paternal grandparents are Irish, and Sheeran has stated that his father is from a "very large" Catholic family. John is an art curator and lecturer, and Imogen is a culture publicist turned jewellery designer. His parents ran Sheeran Lock, an independent art consultancy, from 1990 to 2010.

Sheeran began recording music in 2004 and independently released his first collection of work, tiled *Spinning Man*. He has been friends with fellow English singer, Passenger, since he was 15, with the two playing the same gig in Cambridge. He moved to London in 2008 and began playing in small venues. In 2008, he auditioned for the ITV series *Britannia High*. He also opened for Nizlopi in Norwich in April 2008, after being one of their guitar technicians. In the autumn of 2009, Sheeran began studying music at the Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) in Guildford, Surrey as an undergraduate at the age 18, but left without permission in the same year to support hip-hop artist Just Jack. He released another EP in 2009, *You Need Me*, and also collaborated several times with Essex singer Leddra Chapman, including CeeLo Green's "Fuck You". In February 2010, Sheeran posted a video through SB.TV, and rapper Example invited Sheeran to tour with him. In the same month, he also released his critically acclaimed *Loose Change* EP, which featured his future debut single, "The A Team".

Sheeran began to be seen by more people over the internet through YouTube and his fan base expanded, with him also receiving praise from *The Independent* newspaper and Elton John. He played a *Station Session* in St. Pancras International in June 2010. Some of the episode is on their Facebook page Sheeran also self-released two other EPs in 2010, *Ed Sheeran: Live at the Bedford* and *Songs I Wrote with Amy*, which is a collection of love songs he wrote in Wales with Amy Wadge. When in Los Angeles in 2010, he was invited to perform at The Foxxhole, a club run by actor Jamie Foxx, which ended with an invitation to stay at Foxx's home.

On 8 January 2011, Sheeran released another independent EP, *No. 5 Collaborations Project*, featuring grime artists such as Wiley, Jme, Devlin, Sway and Ghetts. With this EP, Sheeran gained mainstream attention for having reached number 2 in the iTunes chart without any promotion or label, selling over 7,000 copies in the first week. Three months later, Sheeran put on a free show to fans at the Barfly in Camden Town. Over 1,000 fans turned up, so Sheeran played four different shows to ensure everyone saw a gig, including a gig outside on the street after the venue had closed. Later that month, Sheeran was signed to Asylum Records.

### 2019-2021: *Broken Promises* and *okay, this is it, enjoy*

In September 2019, much to the dismay of basically everyone, it was announced that Sheeran would officially debut in #PI. He released 2 albums (Broken Promises and okay, this is it, enjoy) and 1 EP (I've Seen) through Interscope Records. All releases have, unsurprisingly, have seen mixed reviews on Metacritic. *I've Seen* and *okay, this is it, enjoy*, are both about #PI, mostly about memes.

### 2021-2022: *Colors* Trilogy

In January, July, and November 2021 respectively, Sheeran would release 3 EPs, based on colors, those being Red, Green and Blue (stylized in all caps) through Atlantic Records. Although no specific reason was given initially, he revealed in November 2021 that he did this because his real life self was releasing an album (=, pronounced equals). This would be the basis from now on whenever his real life self releases an album.

### 2022-present: Third album, Celebrity Big Brother, coma and retirement

On 25 March 2022, Sheeran would announce that his next single off of his 3rd album would be released. Appropriately titled "Begin Again", this was also the first single of the 10th season. He would then release the second single off of it, Like You Do, on 7 April 2022.

On 30 March 2022, Sheeran was revealed to be on the first season of Celebrity Big Brother. He later got evicted on Day 5 of the competition.

On 8 April 2022, during an episode of Celebrity Big Brother, Sheeran was striked in the head by another houseguest (which won't be mentioned because he didn't want any badmouthing), which caused a coma and his head to bleed. This ended up in him in the hospital for several days.

Despite saying that he wouldn't retire after he gets legacy artist, on 15 April 2022, Sheeran announced his retirement on Tootland, citing the coma that he had induced during Celebrity Big Brother. He also mentions that if he gets the Legacy Award this year, his family members would accept it on his behalf.

## Artistry

### Influences

Sheeran's earliest memories include listening to the records of Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Elton John's *Greatest Hits*. According to Sheeran, the album that introduced him to music was Van Morrison's *Irish Heartbeat*. During his childhood his father took him to live concerts that would inspire his musical creations. These included seeing Eric Clapton at the Royal Albert Hall, Paul McCartney in Birmingham, and Bob Dylan. On the influence of Clapton, Sheeran states, "He's the reason I started playing guitar". He singled out Clapton's performance at the Party at the Palace in the grounds of Buckingham Palace, "I was eleven when I saw Eric Clapton play at the Queen's Golden Jubilee concert in June 2002. I remember him walking on stage with this rainbow-coloured Stratocaster and playing the first riff of 'Layla'. I was hooked. Two days later I bought a black Stratocaster copy for £30 that came with an amp. All I did for the next month was try to play that 'Layla' riff."

He has also cited The Beatles, Nizlopi and Eminem as his biggest musical influences.

## Other Ventures

### Acting

Sheeran made his acting debut in 2014, a cameo role as himself on New Zealand soap opera *Shortland Street*, filmed while he was in the country for a one-off performance. In May 2015, he appeared as himself and performed on a live episode of the NBC sitcom *Undateable*. Later that year, while in Australia, he recorded scenes for the soap *Home and Away*, as a character based on himself.

After recording a cover version of Foy Vance's "Make It Rain" for *Sons of Anarchy*, Sheeran was cast by creator Kurt Sutter to play Sir Cormac in the medieval drama *The Bastard Executioner* on FX. Sheeran also appeared as himself in the 2016 film *Bridget Jones's Baby* in a scene where Bridget Jones, played by Renée Zellweger, encounters the singer at the Glastonbury Festival.

In July 2017, Sheeran appeared in a scene on *Game of Thrones* opposite Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark. David Benioff explained that since Williams was a big fan of the singer, they wanted to have Sheeran appear on the show to surprise Williams, and that they had tried to get him on for years. It received a mix of positive and very negative reviews.

In June 2019, Sheeran made his debut appearance in an advertisement for Heinz Tomato Ketchup. A lifelong fan of the product — he has it with everything from fish and chips to his morning sausage "butty" to upmarket dinners, carries a bottle on tour, and has a Heinz Ketchup tattoo on his arm — he put forward an idea he had written for their next TV campaign, and the company responded. A representative from Heinz started that "1/3 of @HEINZ Instagram posts include people mentioning or tagging Ed, dating all the way back to 2014." Poking fun at people who turn their nose up at those who ask for ketchup in fancy restaurants, the advert sees him walking into a "super posh" restaurant while narrating the message he had sent to the company. As the other wealthy diners look on in horror at the sight of a ketchup bottle, he flips the bottle, bangs it against his hand to budge the ketchup and smothers it all over his food. The company released a limited edition ketchup product known as Ed Sheeran X Heinz ketchup, also known as "Heinz Edchup".

Released in June 2019, Sheeran appeared as himself in a supporting role in the Richard Curtis/Danny Boyle film *Yesterday*, a film about a struggling singer-songwriter who wakes up to find that no one but he remembers the Beatles.

### Philanthropy

Sheeran is a supporter of the homeless community, as he was homeless (well not literally) during his first few years of his career.

### Politics

Sheeran publicly opposed Brexit (the United Kingdom leaving the European Union), and supported "remain". Following the June 2016 referendum result where the British public voted to leave, Sheeran was among a group of British musicians (which included Sting, Queen drummer Roger Taylor, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason and Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz) who signed a letter to then Prime Minister Theresa May, drafted by Bob Geldof in October 2018, calling for "a 2nd vote". Stating that Brexit will "impact every aspect of the music industry. From touring to sales, to copyright legislation to royalty collation", the letter adds: "We dominate the market and our bands, singers, musicians, writers, producers and engineers work all over Europe and the world and in turn, Europe and the world come to us. Why? Because we are brilliant at it ... [Our music] reaches out, all inclusive, and embraces anyone and everyone. And that truly is what Britain is."

He, along with Hayley Williams, is allegedly a supporter of Gwen Stefani, as he collaborated with her in the song Sunset Overdrive.

## Personal Life

Since 2021, Sheeran, along with T.O.P., are self proclaimed "bros". This can be seen in their song *BRO SUPREMACY*.

He has been mentioned in a total of around 10-11 Best Moments, but none of them have been nominated.

Sheeran has been frequently ignored in the #PI timeline. Even if he does gain attention, it will be most likely be for a short amount of time, with the only exception being hosting the seasonal #PI Hunger Games simulation (since Season 9c).

### Marriage and Children

Since July 2015, Sheeran has been in a relationship with childhood friend and former secondary school classmate Cherry Seaborn. They announced their engagement in January 2018 and were married a year later. She is the inspiration of the song "Perfect", which actually doesn't exist in the #PIverse. It was reported on 12 August 2020 that the couple were expecting their first child. On 1 September, Sheeran announced on Instagram that Seaborn had given birth to a baby girl the previous week (August 28). They named their daughter Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran.

## Legacy

Sheeran has been considered to be "the greatest singer of this fucking generation" by his manager. However, this isn't true when you consider his #PI releases, because all of them have mixed to negative reviews on Metacritic. Yikes.

He also has 4/5 legacy points at the time this article was written (12/23/21), so expect him to be legacy artist next year.

## Awards and Achievements

*Main article: Ed Sheeran/Awards*
Sheeran has been nominated for 1 award in 2019, that being Best New Artist.

## Discography

*Main article: Ed Sheeran/Discography*
* *Broken Promises* (2019)
* *I've Seen* [EP] (2019)
* *okay, this is it, enjoy* (2019)
* *Red* [EP] (2021)
* *Green* [EP] (2021)
* *Blue* [EP] (2021)
* *TBA* (2022)

## Galleries

### Artwork Gallery

**Albums**

broken promisesI've Seenokay, this is it, enjoyREDGREENBLUEES3ES3 (D3LUX3 3DITION)ES4EVERES4EVER (Expanded)Finally, Coming Back.
**Singles**

Cheat Codewoke upwhen the crisis is overBag Pussy EnergyHomelessness Isn't IdealprobeBIRTHDAY FOR ONE‽ (Interrobang)It's Okay to CryKerosenefeelings goNever Coming BackGREENIs She Dead?BRO SUPREMACYBRO SUPREMACY (Big Bro Autumn Remix)Begin AgainLike You DoLike You Do (Near Death Experience)Don't Tell Me It's OverLongerBe OkayTo Stay AliveClose Your Eyes