English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran started making music at a young age and has been putting out albums independently for years, but last year the 21-year-old musician broke into the mainstream with his sentimental single “The A Team.” Find out more in his Kidzworld Bio!
Early Ed
Ed’s parents are English and Irish and he grew up in a household where music and artistic expression were valued highly, claiming early inspiration from road trips where his parents would blast iconic Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, to joining them for special musical performances when possible. Ed picked up the guitar while he was young and by the time he had hit high school he was already penning songs .
London to Los Angeles
The budding musician began recording albums in 2005 while he was still a teenager, first creating to EPs followed by two full length albums called Ed Sheeran and Want Some? In 2008 Ed packed his bags and moved to the big city, London that is, so that he could play more gigs and hone his craft anywhere they would let him play, there was no venue too small. One of his musical idols James Morrison once played 200 gigs in a year, so Ed set out to match (and beat) that record by performing 312 times in 2009 while continuing to write more and more songs. At one point he teamed up with
London proved not to be a big enough move for Ed, so he sought adventure by setting course for Los Angeles even though he knew no one there and would be making his name from scratch .Luckily, when you’re talented this challenge can be overcome, and he quickly started building a name for himself by playing open mic nights all over town and was spotted by Jamie Foxx, who was so impressed by his sheer talent that he let Ed come use his studio for rest of his time in L.A. to record more songs.
British Breakthrough
On returning to England Ed was starting to make waves in the industry and on the internet with videos he had posted to YouTube. He was gaining fans overnight and when he released his album No.5 Collaborations his first single “The A Team” shot to the top of the digital charts in the UK. He soon landed spots on British talk shows like Late Night with Jools Holland and quickly became respected in the musical community by his peers – artists like One Direction cite him as an inspiration! Slowly but surely his music is catching on across the pond, his song “Give Me Love” was featured in an episode of The Vampire Diaries.
He won a 2012 Brit Award for Best British Breakthrough and Best British Male Solo Artist and performed at the closing ceremonies for the 2012 London Olympics.
Check out Ed's acoustic version of "The A Team" below!
Have Your Say
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