Edward Christopher Sheeran, most popular as Ed Sheeran, is a composer, musician, and phenomenal artist who was born on February 17, 1991, in the United Kingdom.
The world knows him as a Grammy-award-winning singer-songwriter and for his great, great music compositions. But who is he behind all the spotlight and cheers? Have you ever wondered how Ed Sheeran’s life looks like in real?
Well certainly not everyone is or was born with a silver spoon in the mouth, and the life of this millennial favorite is no different. He has dealt with his fair share of hardships and struggles, which includes bullying, insecurity, shame, inner battles, to finally become the award-winning composer, singer, which he is today!
Ed Sheeran’s story is a pure reflection of his the artist has embraced his flaws and uniqueness, and finally became the favorite of all by bringing to the forefront his beautiful voice. The English artist and guitarist is loved globally and is most commonly referred to as the ‘Ginger Boy’, who immediately won the hearts of millions with his pop melodies.
Who is Ed Sheeran?
Born on February 17, 1991, in Halifax, Edward Christopher Sheeran or Ed Sheeran was the younger of the two brothers who began playing guitar at a very young age. Soon after he started writing his songs during his teenage and moved to London to pursue music. Thereafter his creativity outpoured as he started releasing several EPs and conducted hundreds of live shows.
According to the famous singer, it was Irish Heartbeat that inspired him and made him choose music as his career. Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, and Bob Dylan are some of the people who were his constant inspiration. During his teenage years, he started recording CDs and sold them, and at the age of 14, Ed Sheeran dropped ‘Spinning Man’ and ‘The Orange Room’, both considered to be important projects during his early years.
It was his love for the guitar that got the singer into singing and music. In school, he was mostly bullied for his oversized glasses and stutter, and as a kid, he underwent surgery that left him with a lazy eye and severe speech problems.
However, surprisingly the problem didn’t arise when he tried to sing and make music. He enjoyed participating in concerts hosted in the local church. He believed this his red hair, which made him the Ginger Boy turned out to be his saving grace! After all, there is only one messy-haired boy in a group who plays guitar.
Beginning of his music career
The speech was one of his biggest fears. But one day when Ed Sheeran’s father purchased him Eminem’s record, the singer was stunned by how the artist was rapping, and this inspired him to learn every word by the time he turned 10.
Ed Sheeran started writing his music and suddenly his speech problem and the stutter were all gone!
At an early age, the singer recognized his calling, and in addition to playing the guitar, and writing various songs, he started performing at various venues. He quickly started conducting 12 shows in a week and that continued for over 4 years. It was not far when he started recording CDs. At 14, the artist headed to London and stepped into his official career in music. Once he reached there, Ed Sheeran started recording and playing on a loop and quickly dropped two albums, one in 2006 and the other in 2007. The year 2009, found him playing in more than 300 live shows. However, it wasn’t until 2010 when Ed Sheeran took the biggest leap of his career when he posted an online video that got the attention of rapper, Example.
Ed Sheeran was offered to go on the road with him as his opening act. This led to an even bigger online fan base and the singer derived his inspiration to curate more songs that ended up with 3 new EPs. All in 2010!
Social media quickly noticed and admired the boy with ginger hair, a guitar, and an amazing voice, that made him go viral in no time.
Ed Sheeran’s Music, Songs, and Albums
In 2010, when Ed Sheeran headed to the States, he found his new follower in Jamie Foxx, who offered him to appear on his Sirius radio show. And soon in 2011, the artist released another EP which was his last as an independent artist. Without any sort of promotion, the record went to hit the Number 2 spot on the iTunes Chart and Ed Sheeran signed with Atlantic Records on the same month.
With Atlantic Records, the Ginger Boy released his stellar debut album ‘+’ that became an instant hit and went on to sell over a million copies in the UK itself in 6 months!
The album reached for 6 times platinum certification and also reached the top five spot in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the US!
Soon, Ed Sheeran began co-writing compositions with bigger artists like Taylor Swift, One Direction, and others. Sheeran’s incredible success came rolling when his track ‘I See Fire’ was featured in the movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and in 2014 June, Ed Sheeran dropped his next hit album ‘X’ that featured the top 10 singles including ‘Thinking Out Loud’, ‘Photograph’, and ‘Don’t’ with few of the songs winning the Best Pop Solo Performance in 2016 and Grammy for Song of the Year.
In 2016, Ed Sheeran took off to work on his third album and in 2017 January, he came back to present hits like ‘Castle on the Hill’ and ‘Shape of You’ which debuted on the Number 6 and Number 1 respectively on the Billboard Hot 100.
Subsequently, Sheeran announced a world tour in 2017 and his new album smashed a Spotify record for the maximum first-day album streams with over 56.7 million listens in less than 24 hours.
In late 2017, the artist delivered yet another blockbuster with the famous love track ‘Perfect’ which he released as a joint effort with Beyonce and titled as ‘Perfect Duet’. The original version of the song climbed to the Number 1 spot on the Billboard Pop songs and also on the Adult Pop Songs charts during 2018 mid-January. Later in January, Ed Sheeran won the Best Pop solo performance for his song ‘Shape of You’ and the Best Pop vocal album for the record ‘Divide’.
In May 2019, Ed Sheeran along with Justin Bieber dropped the track ‘I Don’t Care’ which came from Sheeran’s studio album No. 6 Collaborations Project. The song became an instant hit and established a new record by being the new single-day streaming record in Spotify.
Sheeran also wrote Justin Bieber’s popular track ‘Love Yourself’ in 2015.
Ed Sheeran continued to drop hit releases like ‘Cross Me’ with Chance the Rapper and ‘Beautiful People’ featuring Khalid, with the album No.6 finally producing 8 successful singles before Sheeran picked up a Grammy for the Best Pop Vocal Album.
TV Shows and Films
So far, Ed Sheeran has been featured in numerous films including the Beatles-inspired musical Yesterday in 2019 and Bridget Jone’s Baby in 2016. He also cracked a recurring role in the 2015 FX series named The Bastard Executioner, and later he was offered a role in Modern Love and an episode of Games of Thrones.
Awards and Achievements
Ed Sheeran has bagged multiple worthy awards for his powerful performances. And, it includes British Artist of the Year in the year 2014 and the American Music Award for Favorite Rock/ Pop Male Artist in 2015.
In 2015, he also received the Ivor Novello Award for being the Songwriter of the Year.
His track ‘Thinking Out loud’ has won him 2 Grammy Awards during the 2016 Grammy Awards, the Best Pop Solo Performance, and also the Song of the Year.
Sheeran performed at the 2012 Summer Olympics Ceremony. And in 2015 Sheeran along with John Mayer performed at the 2015 Grammy Awards.
Ginger Boy Ed Sheeran believes that being weird is a wonderful thing!
Ed Sheeran’s life story seems to be one of the modern-day inspiring tales that can surely install faith and hope in the hearts of any starving artist and also that one unpopular kid in the school. In an instance, Sheeran had shared that one of the coolest kids from his school, went on to being his plumber later in his life.
That’s the famous red-haired guy who believes that being weird and nerdy, and mainly being you is the best thing one could do!
Personal Life & Royalty
Ed Sheeran shared a relationship with the Scottish singer Nina Nesbitt in 2012 and she was also the subject of two of his famous tracks ‘Photograph’ and ‘Nina’. And, post break up with her, Sheeran dated Athina Andrelos with whom he broke up in 2015.
It was then that he started dating his school friend Cherry Seaborn. Ed Sheeran has purchased a farm in England, Suffolk, and has also renovated it as he plans to raise his family there.
In his royal achievements, Ed Sheeran on December 7, 2017, was made a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his extraordinary services to charity and music.
He received the honor from Prince Charles and weeks later, he announced that he celebrated the momentous occasion by getting engaged to Cherry Seaborn, his girlfriend just before the New Year.
In August, Sheeran revealed that the two had secretly got married and stated that he’s never too public about his personal life. In August 2020, Ed Sheeran and his now-life Cheery Seaborn welcomed their first child, daughter Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran.