Chaining hits and tours at lightning speed, Ed Sheeran has left such a mark on the history of contemporary pop that we almost forget that his career is only 13 years old. It was in fact on September 9, 2011 that the singer from Halifax, in the north of England, began his encounter with the public via the album “+”, the first in his arithmetic series… and his incredible worldwide success! From the release of his first single “The A Team”, the young artist, aged 20 at the time, hit the mark with his sensitive acoustic pop-folk, taking third place in the UK charts before sweeping through the United States, Germany, Japan and Australia. France only truly succumbed to the talent of Ed Sheeran with his second album “X” (2015) and the singles “Sing” and “Thinking Out Loud”, both ranked in the top 5 titles. the most popular in the country. From, Ed Sheeran achieved three number ones with his albums “÷”, “=” and “-” on French soil, reached the top of the Top Singles twice thanks to “Shape of You” and “Perfect”, and notably filled four times the Stade de France. A crazy climb!
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A tragic true story
If the 33-year-old artist is currently defending a best of compilation before his return to France for four concerts in 2025, he continues to establish his domination on the international rankings thanks to his many popular songs. For the 12th time in his career, Ed Sheeran joins the coveted “billionaires club” established by Spotify. One of his hits has just crossed the billion stream mark on the streaming platform with 615 million users worldwide… and it happens to be “The A Team”! A nice way to come full circle for the musician, who tells through this melancholic title – the most beautiful song in his repertoire – the story of a sex worker addicted to cocaine, a Class A drug in the United Kingdom. Hence this refrain now anchored in popular culture: “ And they say / She’s in the Class A Team / Stuck in her daydream / Been this way since eighteen “. It was during a concert in a homeless shelter that Ed Sheeran met a woman named Angel, who inspired this song and the famous phrase “ It’s too cold outside / For angels to fly »…
Thanks to “The A Team”, Ed Sheeran received its very first Grammy nomination in 2012 in the “Song of the Year” category, won that year by the group Fun and Janelle Monaé with “We Are Young”. The British star now collects four awards for a total of 17 nominations! The singer’s 11 other songs to have crossed the threshold of one billion streams on Spotify are, in order of popularity: “Shape of You” (4 billion!), “Perfect”, “Photograph”, “Thinking out Loud”, “I Don’t Care” with Justin Bieber, “Bad Habits”, “Shivers”, “Beautiful People” with Khalid, “Castle on the Hill”, “Galway Girl” and “Happier”. The next title to join the circle of 13? It will be “I See Fire”, which currently has 963 million plays on the clock.
