Ed Sheeran

When Ed Sheeran released +, he had just turned 20. He had been playing music since he was a child in Framlingham, Suffolk -- he was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire but his family moved when he was young -- enthralled by the classic rock he heard around the house. Sheeran started writing music in his early teens, recording a self-made album called Spinning Man when he was 13 in 2004. In addition to making music at home -- he put out an EP titled The Orange Room in 2005 -- he'd busk on the streets and play whatever stage he could find. When he was 16, he dropped out of school and moved to London so he could make a go of a professional career, landing work as a guitar tech for Nizlopi, gigging whenever he could, and auditioning unsuccessfully for the ITV series Britannia High. The self-released EP You Need Me arrived in 2009 -- it followed 2006's eponymous EP and 2007's Want Some? -- but his momentum started to build in 2010 thanks to the EPs Loose Change and Songs I Wrote with Amy and, especially, performance videos he posted to YouTube. Sheeran started to generate considerable buzz -- Jamie Foxx invited him to appear on his Sirius/XM radio show -- and he landed a deal with Asylum Records in late 2010. After a final independent EP, No. 5 Collaborations, arrived in January 2011, he signed a contract with Elton John's management team.

From 🇬🇧 United Kingdom