Sep 19, 2026
Author Spotlight: Ed Sheeran — The Busker Everyone Called a Joke, and the Three Years of Gigging That Made Him the Biggest-Selling Artist on Earth
A deep dive on Ed Sheeran — the red-haired, bespectacled son of an art curator and a jewellery designer, born in Halifax on February 17, 1991 and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, who began writing songs at eleven, left school at sixteen, gigged constantly for three years and sometimes slept rough before a self-released EP led to a record deal; the singer-songwriter behind +, ×, ÷, No.6 Collaborations Project, =, − and Play, and the hits 'The A Team', 'Thinking Out Loud', 'Shape of You' and 'Perfect'; a four-time Grammy winner and Emmy winner appointed MBE in 2017, named the IFPI's best-selling global recording artist of 2017, and the man whose ÷ Tour became the highest-grossing concert tour of all time at $775.6 million; his defining reflections on being underestimated, songwriting as therapy, depression, privacy and what his shows are for; and the legacy of the 35-year-old who has sold 200 million records, helped found a music foundation for Suffolk children, and — as his Wikipedia page drew 155,393 views in a single day during the 2026 Loop Tour — remains, by his own account, the guy nobody took seriously.