We all love Ed Sheeran's songs - particularly for their meaningful and soul-stirring lyrics. But have you ever wondered about the stories behind those hits?
Ed Sheeran turns 34 today - but listen to any of his songs, try to understand the lyrics, and you'll feel a depth that's far beyond his years. There's a fine balance of emotions and wisdom that hits the right chords in our hearts, making us laugh, cry, and everything in between. Probably, it's because he has experienced life in a way that others take a lifetime to grasp. Whether it's love, loss, heartbreak, homelessness, struggle, or unprecedented success; he has lived through it all. And that's what makes his music so special, and so relatable.
"Nina" - written by Ed Sheeran and Northern Irish singer Johnny McDaid - is the 6th track of the former's second studio album, 'x'. The widely celebrated song consists of elements of "Welcome to My World" by Wretch 32, written by Jermaine Scott, Isra Andja-Diumi Lohata, and Jay Lee Robert Hippolyte.
Sheeran penned this song about his ex, the popular Scottish singer-songwriter Nina Nesbitt, who toured with him and also had a small cameo role in his "Drunk" video.
Speaking about the story behind "Nina", the English singer-songwriter later shared in an interview, "That's about my ex-girlfriend Nina Nesbitt, we dated for a year. When you're a musician and you date someone, there's always an in-between. Like, you put your family and your friends first, always, and then your career second. But when you date someone, they kind of fall in between the family and friends and career, and you don't really know whether they're more important than the career or whether they're more important than family - so this is a song about that."
(Credit: Ed Sheeran
Shape of You
"Shape of You" is so popular worldwide - I mean, so damn popular - that Ed Sheeran is often recognized as "That Shape of You singer" by many. The song was released in 2017 as part of his third studio album, '÷', emerging as the best-performing song of the year in several countries. It reached number one in many European charts and throughout Latin America, as well as in Malaysia where it remained at the top for 12 non-consecutive weeks.
However, what's interesting here is that Sheeran initially didn't want this song to be included in the album. He first penned it for 'Little Mix' (an English girl group) and then conceived it as a duet between Rihanna and Rudimental. In his words, "... we were writing this song and I was like 'this would really work for Rihanna'. And then I started singing lyrics like 'putting Van the Man on the jukebox' and I was like 'Well she's not really going to sing that, is she?' And then we sort of decided halfway through that we were just going to make it for me."
(Credit: Ed Sheeran
The A Team
Ed Sheeran's debut single, "The A Team", is a heart-wrenching song, which became a top 10 hit in countries like Australia, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, the Netherlands, Japan, and the United Kingdom. In 2012, it received a Grammy Award nomination for Song of the Year and a Best British Single nomination at the Brit Awards.
In the musician's words, this song is based on an experience he had when he did a gig at a homeless shelter. He explained, "I was 18 at the time and kind of quite naive. So, I was a bit taken aback by some of the stories that I heard. I wanted to write it so it sounded kind of upbeat, so you wouldn't really know what it's about, because it's quite a dark subject."
(Credit: Ed Sheeran
Particularly, it's based on a woman, named Angel, who he met at the shelter - and hence the line "Angels to fly".
Every Ed Sheeran song tells a story that hits differently every time we listen to it. Today, we wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY and many more amazing songs along the way.
