About

Family and Early life: (1991-2004)

Edward Christopher Sheeran is an English singer songwriter . He was born on February 17th 1991 in Halifax. He was raised in Suffolk. His father – John – is a lecturer. His mother – Imogen- a culture publicist turned jewellery maker. He has one older  brother, Matthew. He is a classical composer and postgraduate music student. He’s of Irish decent and was raised a Catholic.

He sang in a local church choir from the age of four, learned guitar at a very young age, and began writing songs during his time at High School. His early childhood memories include listening to Van Morison and Damien Rice.

Career Beginnings: (2005-2010)

He began recording in 2005 and led to his first EP, The Orange Room. He also released two albums. A self entitled one  in 2006 and ‘Want Some?’ in 2007. He moved to London in 2008 to play gigs, starting off in very small venues, playing every day to as little as five people. He auditioned for Britannia High in 2008 –  a British ITV series. In 2009, Sheeran played 312 gigs. He said that he read an interview with James Morrison that said that Morrison had done 200 gigs in a year, and Sheeran wanted to beat him on this number. Also in 2009, he released another EP, You Need Me. He went on tour with Just Jack in 2009 also.  In February 2010 Sheeran posted a video through SB.TV, which led to Example asking Sheeran to tour with him.  Also in February 2010 he released his  Loose Change EP, which featured his later debut single “The A Team”.

He left his management company in 2010 and bought a ticket to LA where he was spotted at a poetry night by Jamie Foxx at Foxxhole. He was so impressed that he offered Sheeran the use of his recording studio and the run of his Hollywood home for the rest of his stay. Throughout 2010, Sheeran began to be seen by more people over the internet through Youtube and his fan-base grew.

On 8 January 2011, Sheeran released his final independent EP,featuring appearances by grime artists including Wiley and Devlin.  With this EP, Sheeran gained mainstream attention for reaching number 2 in the iTunes chart without any promotion or label, selling over 7,000 copies in its first week. Three months later, Sheeran put on a free show to fans at the Barfly in Camden. Over 1,000 fans turned up to see the show, so Sheeran ended up playing four different shows to make sure everyone saw a gig. Later that month, Sheeran was signed to Atlantic Reords.

Success 2011- 2012:

On 26 April, Sheeran appeared on the TV music show ‘Later . . With Jools Holland’– where he performed his  single “The A Team”. Six weeks later, “The A Team” was released as a digital download in the UK. The release was the lead single from his debut album, entitled +. “The A Team” entered the UK singles chart at number three, selling over 58,000 copies in the first week. It was congratulated on being the best selling debut single and the overall eight best selling single of 2011, selling 801,000 copies. The lead single also became a top ten hit in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway and the Netherlands.  The second single ‘You need me’ peaked at number four on the UK singles chart.

“Lego House” was released as the third single reaching the top ten on Australian, Irish, Scottish, New Zealand Singles Charts and Flemish top50. “Drunk”, released on 19 February 2012, became Sheeran’s fourth consecutive top ten single in the UK, peaking at number nine.

Sheeran’s debut album + was released on 12 September 2011. It received generally favourable reviews from critics. +debuted number one on the UK albums chart , selling 102,000 copies in its first week. It became the second best selling debut album and the ninth biggest-selling album of 2011 in the UK, shifting 791,000 copies. The album has been certified quintuple platinum by th, denoting shipments of 1,500,000 copies.

2012–present: International success and Red Tour

Taylor Swift contacted Ed Sheeran after hearing his music , while touring Australlia in March 2012. He later co-wrote and provided vocals for “Everything Has Changed”, a song featured on Swift’s fourth album Red.  It was announced on 30 April 2013 that “Everything Has Changed” is to be released as the next single from Red. Sheeran also contributed two songs to One Direction’s second studio album, Take me home. “Over Again” and the single “Little Things”, which became the group’s second number-one hit in the UK. Sheeran’s album peaked at No. 5 on the US Billboard 200, while The A Team reached No. 16 on the Hot 100. In late 2012 and early 2013, he headlined a US tour of 6,000-9,000 capacity venues. “The A Team” received a nomination for Song of the Year at the 2013 Grammy Awards. Elton John, who runs Sheeran’s management company, canvassed the award organizers to get Sheeran a performance slot at the ceremony but was told that Sheeran alone was not high-profile enough.

Sheeran is playing 64 dates at arenas and stadiums across North America as the opening act for Swift’s Red Tour from March to September 2013. Sheeran got a Red tattoo to mark the career opportunity and remarked, “I think Taylor’s just opening up a lot of doors and it’s up to me to make sure that I get through to them. It’s a massive opportunity for me and I want to make sure to grab it with both hands … It will be exciting to be back in a situation where I’m playing in front of people who are complete strangers and I have to win them over.”He is living in Nashville, Tenasse for the duration of 2013. He intends to continue writing and recording his second album while on tour and says that it will be “more of a beat-heavy thing, definitely more hip-hop like”.  The album is slated for release in February 2014.

Awards

ARIA

Year	Nomination	Nominated Work	Result
2012	Best International Artist	Himself	Nominated

BRIT

Year	Nomination	Nominated Work	Result
2012	British Breakthrough Act	Himself	Won
	British Solo Male Artist		Won
	Best British Single	“The A Team”	Nominated
	British Album of the year	“+”	Nominated

BTS Digital Music

Year	Nomination	Nominated Work	Result
2011	Breakthrough Artist of the year	Himself	Won

Grammy

Year	Nomination	Nominated Work	Result
2013	Song of the Year	“The A Team”	Nominated

MTV

Year	Nomination	Nominated Work	Result
2012	Best UK & Ireland Act	Himself	Nominated

Ivor Novello

Year	Nomination	Nominated Work	Result
2012	Best Song Musically and Lyrically	“The A Team”	Won

MOBO

Year	Nomination	Nominated Work	Result
2011	Best Newcomer	Himself	Nominated
2012	Best Male Act	Himself	Nominated
	Best Album	“+”	Nominated
	Best Song	“Lego House”	Nominated

Q awards

Year	Nomination	Nominated Work	Result
2011	Breakthrough Artist	Himself	Won
	Best Single	“You Need Me, I Don’t Need You”	Won

UK Music video awards

Year	Nomination	Nominated Work	Result
2011	Best Urban Video-UK	“You Need Me, I Don’t Need You”	Nominated
	Best Editing in a Video		Nominated