Ed Sheeran - Star Analysis

For my star analysis I am going to look at Ed Sheeran. Ed Sheeran the English born singer was born on the 17th February 1991. Currently signed to Asylum/Atlantic Records, Ed first broke the commercial mainstream music scene when he released his single 'The A Team', which debuted at number 3 in the UK charts. Sheeran learnt guitar at a young age, and started writing songs in his time at Thomas Mills High School in Framlingham. Ed claims to have gained inspiration from Van Morrison and he states he remembers going to an intimate Damien Rice gig at the age of eleven.

Music Career:

Sheeran started recording in 2005, which soon led him to release his first EP - 'The Orange Room'. After some time Ed decided to release 2 albums. First was a self titled album in 2006, and the second 'Want Some?' in 2007. He soon moved to London to start performing, starting off in smaller venues, playing to small intimate crowds almost everyday.

In 2009 Ed Sheeran played an amazing 312 gigs. After reading an interview of James Morrison, he discovered that he had played 200 gigs in a year. Sheeran set himself a goal of exceeding that number, and successfully did. Also in 2009, Sheeran released on another EP called 'You Need Me' just before going on tour with Just Jack. In early 2010 Ed Sheeran posted a video on SB.TV, which grabbed the attention of mainstream artists Example who then offered Sheeran the chance to tour with him. In February 2010 he released the critically acclaimed 'Loose Change EP’, which featured his debut single 'The A Team'. A video was made for the song and the apparent cost of it was an astonishing £20.

In April of 2010 after leaving his previous management team, Sheeran travelled to Los Angeles without contacts and other than one poetry night. He played small open mic nights all over the city, before being spotted at the 'Foxxhole' by Jamie Foxx, who invited him to stay at his house and record for the rest of his stay. Ed Sheeran started to gather a fan base that was growing day by day by uploading videos on YouTube. He also started getting praise from England footballer Rio Ferdinand and English music legend Elton John. Sheeran also released 2 more EP's which were self titled in 2010 and then 'Ed Sheeran; Live at the Bedford and Songs I Wrote With Amy', which was a group of love songs he wrote during his time in Wales with another singer-songwriter Amy Wadge. 

Early 2011 on the 8th January, Sheeran decided to release the last of his independent project by releasing the EP 'No.5 Collaborations Project' featuring some grime music artists such as Wiley, JME, Devlin, Sway and Ghetts. With this release Ed got attention and respect from the mainstream resulting in him reaching the number 2 spot on the iTunes chart without any promotion or a label to do it for him. The EP sold over 7,000 copies in the first week if it's release. Later this year, Ed Sheeran successfully signed to Asylum/Atlantic Records.