Ed Sheeran turns 30: From sleeping on the street to being Britain’s biggest music star

With more than 150 million albums sold and multiple platinum records, there are few artists as popular right now as the British star Ed Sheeran, who this February 17 turns three decades in this land. Coming from a middle-class family, the artist showed a musical aptitude from very early in his life, but before reaching fame he also suffered through some vicissitudes such as overcoming a stutter since childhood and overcoming the frugal life of an unknown artist, including nights where he slept on the street. In honor of his birthday, we review those stories.

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“He was a very, very strange child”

The musician, whose full name is Edward Christopher Sheeran, was born February 17, 1991 in the town of Halifax, located in the north of England, in the bosom of a family with close ties to art: her parents, John and Imogen Sheeran, worked in museums and currently the matriarch of the clan works as a music teacher, after being jewelry designer. In 1995 the family moved to Suffolk, a county in the eastern region of the country, where the musician spent most of his childhood.

Ed was not the only musically talented Sheeran, and his older brother Matt is also a composer, albeit with a predilection for classical music. In his career he has not only collaborated with Ed, but also with Andrea Bocelli, LeAnn Rimes and the duo Ward Thomas, as well as composed music for movies and television series.

Ed Sheeran described himself as “a very weird kid”. (Photo: Goalcast / YouTube)

From a very young age, Ed Sheeran showed a predilection for music, by participating in your local church choir at age four and, after receiving a guitar from one of his uncles at the age of eleven, he began to teach himself to play the string instrument.

“I was a very, very, very, very strange child“Admitted the singer years later during a speech at the American Institute for Stuttering. It was precisely this disease, which he developed in his childhood after a laser surgery in which they forgot to give him anesthesia, one of the first challenges he had to overcome.

“The thing I found the most difficult was knowing what to say but not being able to express it in the right way,” recalled Sheeran, noting that his parents sent him to various specialists to deal with this problem successfully.

In the end, it was music that helped him overcome this challenge, a situation that would repeat itself at various times in his life. “When I was young, I really liked rap music. My dad bought me ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’ (Eminem’s third album) when I was nine years old, not knowing what it contained, and he let me listen to it. I learned every word on the record, back and forth. That helped me stop stuttering.”.

Musical beginnings

His passage to adolescence also grew his musical aspirations and by the age of 13 he had already decided that his future was to be a pop star. Thus, in 2004 Ed released his first album entitled “Spinning Man”. The self-released album was inspired by her first love breakup and named after an image her father had.

“I myself burned all the records and made the covers. There were 14 songs, and they all rhymed“The singer revealed in his autobiographical book” Ed Sheeran: A Visual Journey. ”

Only two dozen copies of the album were made and they are currently collectibles. One was sold in 2020 for £ 50,000, around S / .253.8 thousand or US $ 69.5 thousand. “There are probably 20 copies of ‘Spinning Man’ in existence, and I have 19 of them. I don’t want anyone else to have a copy! Most of the songs are about a girl named Claire. She was my first love when I was 13 years old, ”Sheeran confessed.

Sheeran continued to work on music and by 2005 he released his second album titled “The Orange Room“, Which contained only four songs:” I Love You “,” Addicted “,” Misery “and” Moody Ballad of Ed “. By 2007, the artist divided his time between education and promoting his musical career in London with performances in bars and other establishments.

“Education is good, but frequently clashes with music“, He indicated in dialogue with BBC Suffolk in 2008. Sometimes I have to take two or three weeks to go to record or for concerts, and often I come back really late and go to school the next morning.”

Complementing his music education, Ed Sheeran also got in touch with groups that help promote artistic talent in young people such as the National Youth Theater and Youth Music Theater UK. Another important contact he made in those days was with the alternative rock duo. Nizpoli, made up of Luke Concannon and John Parker. The musicians had reached the peak of their popularity with the song “JCB Song” from their album “Half These Songs Are About You” (2004), but were still touring in 2007 when Sheeran joined them as a guitar technician.

By April 2008, his contact with the group was rewarded and in April 2008 the young artist, now 17, was the opening act for the duo.

“The time I spent on tours with Nizpoli was all the education I needed on how to be a singer.Ed Sheeran stated years later in his autobiographical book.

Sleeping (on the outskirts) of Buckingham Palace

By the end of 2008 Ed decided that his future lay in the capital London. Although both John and Imogen supported their son’s musical aspirations, including attending his concerts as supports and to sell his records, the artist’s mother asked that he have an education to lean on if his musical career did not work out. The commitment was for Ed to enroll at Access to Music College London.

Ed Sheeran continued his frenetic pace of work, attending classes twice a week while at night he did concerts and performances throughout the metropolis. That year he also auditioned for the reality show “Britannia High”, Where despite his talent he did not reach the final.

Ed Sheeran applied to the reality show “Britannia High” in 2008. (Photo: ITV)

The musician’s situation was complicated when, due to financial problems, he decided to stop paying the rent, depending on friends to find a roof to sleep in.

“I knew where I could find a bed at a certain time of night and I knew who to call at any time to get a flat to sleep on. Being sociable certainly helped me“Sheeran said about those times.

Despite his efforts, there were nights where he had to sleep in the open, including outside Buckingham Palace. “There is an arch outside Buckingham Palace that has a heating duct and I spent a couple of nights there”He recalled in his book. Years later, in 2012, the artist would return to the palace, this time to play a concert in honor of Queen Elizabeth II. The subway also became another place to sleep. The singer came to the stations when they opened at 5 am to sleep in one place until noon and continue his routine. “It wasn’t that bad,” he would admit later. Thus he spent two years of his life, which would be an inspiration for his song “Homeless”.

The Foxx connection

Sheeran’s fortunes changed in 2010 when a recording of his song “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You” went viral, attracting the attention of rapper Example, who invited him to join him on his tour.

This in turn led him to release his critically acclaimed album “Loose Change“, Which contained the song”The A Team”, Which became a success. Suddenly, the musician was gaining more and more followers and became a sensation on social networks and the media.

But his days of sleeping on strange couches weren’t over yet. And when the singer traveled to Los Angeles, California, to find a label, he ended up being the actor’s temporary roommate. Jamie Foxx, who helped him do the necessary connections to the music industry.

The story, according to Foxx recounted during one of his appearances on “The Graham Norton Show,” Sheeran was a guest on his radio show The Foxxhole, where he performed as an aspiring singer. The actor kept him in his home for six weeks, but he also gave him a test of his material as an artist.

For that, Foxx took Sheeran to a club in downtown Los Angeles. “There were like 800 African Americans. All black. The best musicians in the industry and they were all black. Blacks, ”the actor recalled energetically. And all of a sudden, I say ‘here’s Ed Sheeran’ and he appears with his red hair and ukulele. One of my brothers – who is an incredible guitarist but is faithful to the music – said to me ‘Foxx, come on friend. What are you doing to the environment! ‘ He (Sheeran) came out with his ukulele and got a standing ovation in 12 minutes. ” Here the video of his presentation.

Shortly after, in January 2011 and after releasing his album “No. 5 Collaborations Project “, Sheeran got a contract with Asylum Records, a record company where he released the album” + “with which he positioned himself as one of the most important young artists of the moment and, in the words of Jamie Foxx,”the rest is history”.