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20 Things You Didn't Know about Ed Sheeran

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The singer/songwriter Edward Christopher Sheeran (better known as Ed Sheeran) is a music prodigy that we have grown to adore. He became known to the public in 2012 after working as an opening act for one of his closest friends and country music singer Taylor Swift.  He has since become one to watch out for. He has released 2 albums that have won numerous awards in the four years that he has been around.

Chief among his music are the songs Thinking Out Loud, Sing, Afire Love, Nina, Photograph, Lego House, Small Bump, A-Team and Kiss Me from his albums + (pronounced plus) and x (pronounced multiply). There's a lot to love about this ginger-haired folk song artist, and there's a lot to know about as well.

Below is a list of 20 things that you probably didn't know about Ed Sheeran:

1. He wants to raise his kids in the same town he was raised

In 2012, Sheeran purchased a farm near Framlingham, Suffolk which is the town that he grew up in. The house is the first big purchase he has made after 'blowing up' in 2012 while touring with Taylor Swift. It is currently undergoing renovation but the 'Thinking Out Loud' singer has stated that he hopes to start and raise a family there.

2. He started singing at a very young age

Most people who pursue a life in music start at very young ages. The same holds true for Ed Sheeran. He started off by singing in the church choir at the age of 4. He learned to play the guitar at a young age as well and even released an EP at age 14. Sheeran moved to London when he was 16 in 2008 and performed over 300 live shows in 2009.

3. He looked like his primary school teacher

The famous singer/songwriter attended Thomas Mills High School in Framlingham. In an interview on The Johnathan Ross Show in 2012, Ed Sheeran showed Jonathan a picture of one of his former teachers, Mr. Wheeler, because he thought he looked like him. And he does.

4. He is a philanthropist

Ed Sheeran performed in Bristol, raising 40,000 pounds for a charity that seeks to help street sex workers. "It's good to show insight that these people are real people with real emotions and they deserve the same charity work as anyone else," Ed Sheeran said. "There's a lot more popular charities that get a lot of attention. And with certain subjects like this, they're often washed over and people don't necessarily give them the attention they deserve." Ed Sheeran has a record for getting involved in charity work. He regularly gives away clothes to donation stores and, most recently, donated winter clothing to the No Cold Homes campaign, which helps people in the U.K. who find it difficult to keeping their homes warm enough during the winter months.

5. He is not just a singer

Ed Sheeran is also a songwriter. Along with all of his songs which he writes himself, Ed Sheeran shared his writing skills with boy-band One Direction, helping them to write their successful song "Moments" on their debut album which was released in November of 2011. Ed Sheeran also co-wrote “Everything Has Changed” with Taylor Swift, "Love Yourself" with Justin Beiber, "Lay It All On Me" with Rudimental, "I Was Made for Loving You"with Tori Kelly, "Say You Love Me" with Jessie Ware and so many more amazing hits that have occupied top spots on every chart there is.

6. He has performed at great places

In the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Ed performed at the closing ceremony. This in itself is a very great honor. He performed three sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden as well as three more sold-out concerts at London's Wembley Stadium in July of 2015, which is his biggest show to date. His x album tour gave him the opportunity to perform 179 times across 5 continents with 11 shows in Asia, 61 in Europe, 76 in North America, 23 in Oceania and 8 in South America. This was only three years after he became a known artist while singing as an opening act for his good friend Taylor Swift. If this is not amazing, I don't know what is.

7. He is multilingual...kind of

Apart from English which clearly is the first language of this famous Englishman, Ed Sheeran can speak a bit of German, French and a bit of Greek. Maybe that is overstating that a little big. After an Ed Sheeran fan page @SheeranAndUs tweeted at him "do you speak Spanish?", Ed Sheeran replied with the tweet "sadly not, I failed german and french at school aswell". Ed reports that he can only say 'I love candy' in French and a few words of Greek and German. Oh, and he is a self-proclaimed efficient speaker of Lion King.

8. He names his guitars

Ed Sheeran made it a point to personalize his musical experience. Therefore, all four of his guitars have names; Lloyd, Felix, Cyril, and Nigel. If they are in service today, those four guitars have been touring with their owner for more than 10 years which is a lot due to Ed Sheeran's wild success. I am not sure that he could have made it as big as he has had it not been for his four loyal friends that stood by his side through it all.

9. His songs are based on true stories

Much like his good friend Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran is also known to write deeply tragic or wonderfully hopeful songs about the events that happen in his life. For instance, "Small Bump" was a song that he wrote about his friend's losing of an unborn child. “I wrote it from their perspective. It was my perspective looking on them, to begin with. It’s quite a touchy subject, so I wrote it from the perspective of actually being the parent" Sheeran responded when he was asked about the inspiration for the beautiful song.

He also said “I did a gig at a homeless shelter, and it was about one of the women there. It’s her story. Well, the song itself was written all about her story, so the song is about a drug-addicted homeless woman” referring to his largely successful song A Team that he performed with Elton John at the Grammy Awards in 2013. He also released a song that was about how Ellie Goulding cheated on him with One Direction singer Niall Horan.

10. He was discovered by Taylor Swift

It is reported that Taylor Swift reached out to Ed Sheeran after chancing upon his music while on a tour in Australia in March 2012. He accepted her offer and toured with her during her wildly successful Red tour and even co-wrote and sang the vocals for “Everything Has Changed” on the Red track which was released in October 2012. It went on to become the biggest-selling new album of 2012 and was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2014 Grammy Awards. Looks like Swift and Sheeran lent help to each other, and it changed their lives forever.

11. He is also close friends with Taylor Swift

Ed Sheeran gradually grew his fame while acting as the opening for Taylor Swift during her massively successful Red tour. The two are now very good friends who show a lot of support for each other which have made their absolutely adorable friendship the topic of discussion in every magazine and tabloid. There were even speculations about some romance brewing between them to which Ed Sheeran reported as false while joking that Swift was too tall. Regardless of the tabloid fodder, Taylor Swift has greatly impacted Ed Sheeran’s career by means of promotion as he has gained him a lot of fans and recognition through her tour.

12. Music runs in his blood

Ed Sheeran has one older brother whose name is Matthew who has also made it in the music industry as a classical music composer. As the saying goes, apples do not fall far from the tree. These two are apples that did not fall far from each other as they both share an energetic passion for music.

13. His favorite TV show is The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Like the thousands of other people in the world that were alive during the '90s, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is Ed Sheeran's absolute favorite show. To show his love for this '90s sitcom, Ed had the word 'Prince' tattooed on his arm among his many other tattoos. Ed Sheeran got the tattoo in Philadelphia while on his tour with his friends the Rizzle Kicks who were his opening act in 2013. Ed got a ‘Prince’ tattoo, Jordan got a ‘Fresh’ one on his leg, and Harley got ‘on the playground where I spent most of my days.’ And Ed Sheeran can rap the entire theme songs of the show; he did it in an interview with MTV.

14. He has a lot of tattoos

Ed Sheeran had a lot of tattoos of many random things. Most of his tattoos are along his arms. Included in his sleeve of tats is a cup of tea, a ketchup bottle, the word "Prince" signifying his love of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," Puss in Boots, the phrase ‘Festina Lente’, his family tree, a section of Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night' and a tribute to Taylor Swift Red tattoo. The Red tattoo was a thank you to Taylor Swift for getting him started in the business. Cute.

15. He is also a tattoo artist

We all know that Ed Sheeran is a fan of tattoos. What we did not know is that he is a tattoo artist in addition to being a world renown singer. Ed Sheeran, in fact, gave Harry Styles a tattoo of a padlock. Ed Sheeran was taught by tattoo artist extraordinaire Kevin Paul and he also used Kevin's machine to make the permanent mark on his dear friend Harry Styles. That's not the beginning of their tattoo history, though. Ed and Harry have matching Pingu tattoos because it came up in conversation when they were both drunk that they each enjoyed the show when they were little. One of them got the word, and one the picture. How cute are they?

16. He has a simple goal for his fame

Just listening to Ed Sheeran and his beautiful voice, you would think that Ed Sheeran would want to be known as the best romantic songwriter in the world, or the best poet, or the most amazing lyricist. You will be shocked as to what he actually wants to go down in history as. “I’ve always said that I wanna be known as the nicest and hardest working guy in the industry, so if I could be known as that, that would be brilliant", Ed Sheeran answered when he was asked what he hoped to be known for in an interview. Truly humble answer Ed Sheeran. Well done.

17.  He is loved by the people

The folk song singer has blown up in the past few years and has many fans (who have conveniently named themselves the scenarios) and has received dozens of awards for his great talent. Chief among these include the 4 BRIT Award for British Breakthrough Act and British Solo Male Artist in 2012 and Best Male Solo Artist and Album of the Year for his album x (pronounced multiply). He also won an American Music Award for Favorite Male Artist - Pop/Rock and his song Thinking Out Loud won him two Grammy awards for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance. This wins are very few among the many nominations that his work has had and the many more to come. Kudos, Ed.

18. He has a Nando's black (High-five) card

Ed Sheeran reported that he is a proud holder of a Nando's Black card. He is actually one of the very few people on this planet to have this card which gives you and up to four friends access to a starter, a combo meal, a dessert and a soft drink for an entire year. When asked about this card in an interview by The Front, Ed Sheeran states "I've got one, yeah. It's sick. I got it a couple of months ago and I've been rinsing it. I always go for medium, though. I like to enjoy my food rather than just challenging myself.

I mean I can handle it, but I can't handle the next day, when, er, you know, it resurfaces." That is seriously cool, Ed Sheeran. The few other people with access to this card include Zayn Malik and Andy Murray. David Beckham, Ricky Gervais, JLS , Pixie Lott and Oprah Winfrey are also rumored to have one of these highly coveted cards.

19. He has other talents

Ed Sheeran reports that he has other secret talents (apart from singing and playing the guitar of course), and it might not be what you think. One other thing that he considers his best talent is putting many things in his mouth. There are actual videos of Ed Sheeran on Youtube from when he was younger stuffing a bunch of different things in his mouth; a whole red apple, 37 gummi bears, 9 Jaffa cakes, 6 Kipling lemon slices, 41 Maltesers, 23 Tesco fat-free marshmallows. This is definitely a talent that should be on record.

20. He has had quite the love life

Our favorite folk music artist has had a very interesting love life with a lot of other celebrities. Although most of them turned out to be media allegations, they were not completely unfounded as Ed Sheeran has very close relationships with them. His longest recorded relationship was with his former tour manager and current chef, Athina Andrelos.

The pair data for a year from 2014 and broke up early 2015 after the Brit Awards. Some other beautiful celebrities Ed Sheeran has been known to be romantically affiliated with include Ellie Goulding in 2013, Barbara Palvin and Cherry Seaborn. If these women are anything to judge by, one thing is sure. Ed Sheeran definitely has a thing for beautiful women.

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Garrett Parker

Written by Garrett Parker

Garrett by trade is a personal finance freelance writer and journalist. With over 10 years experience he's covered businesses, CEOs, and investments. However he does like to take on other topics involving some of his personal interests like automobiles, future technologies, and anything else that could change the world.

Read more posts by Garrett Parker

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