The story about the small ginger tattoo-covered guy with glasses who conquered the world charts is one of the most interesting moments in the mainstream music that is predominantly suffused with people who look similar. Ed Sheeran is not tall, handsome or pretty, he was not a part of a boy band or talent show, which practically makes him an anomaly in today's pop culture. How did this boy next door reached his stardom? Well, lot's of bloody work and a little bit of luck.
First of all, Sheeran skillfully combines acoustic folk and rock with dance rhythms, rap and pop melodies. His latest album Divide had recently won a Grammy for best pop vocal album and it also holds the record as the most streamed album on Spotify (one billion streams, and 57 million streams in the first day, wow). He is the only artist who had 9/10 songs on relevant top 10 charts, which makes him more successful than The Beatles.
It is less known that Sheeran also wrote hit singles for other artists. The most famous one if Justin Bieber's Love Yourself, but he also wrote songs for The Weeknd, Jesse Ware, One Direction, Rudimental, Major Lazer and Hilary Duff. And he is only 27 years old! He started playing guitar when he discovered that he can find consolation in music, and Eminem's Marshall Matters LP is also marked as a milestone in his obsession with music. Fascinated by Eminem's ability of rapid rapping, Sheeran learned the whole album when he was ten, which helped him overcome his speech issues. The influence of rap is prominent in his songs, as Sheeran is super talented for flow and metric. Eighteen years later, Sheeran was a guest on Eminem's song River that smashed the charts.
Yet, the road to singing on his idol's record was full of thorns. When he was 16, he knew that music is the only thing that interests him in life, so he decided to go to London to pursue his career. I always remember his appearance in one talk show where they played a short clip of him singing on the street for money. Ed Sheeran was a terrible singer! But the man was persistent. He sometimes played 12 gigs per week in London pubs. In period 2008-2010, he was mostly homeless, sleeping in parks or crashing on the couches of altruist strangers' apartments. He realized played in London is not going to get him anywhere, so he made a decision to move to Los Angeles. While he was struggling in LA, he was sending his songs to everyone. Jamie Foxx noticed him and invited him to his radio show, where he played an intimate show for 300 people and earned a standing ovation. Since Foxx had his own recording studio at his house, he invited him there. Ed Sheeran made his debut in just about six weeks and it went on to become the second best selling record of the year. The rest is history.
Ed Sheeran is the living example of this saying - the more I practice, the more luck I have.
