About Ed Sheeran

Give Me Love

After thinking about the new song I can create a music video for, I have decided to go for “Give Me Love” by Ed Sheeran. This song was released on 21^st November 2012 as the sixth and final single off Sheeran’s debut album ‘+’. The song was written by Sheeran, Jake Gosling and Chris Leonard and peaked at number 18 on the UK singles chart. It has had success across the world and has featured in TV programmes such as ‘Home and Away’ and ‘The Vampire Diaries’. The music video for this song in my opinion doesn’t reflect the song too much. The lead in the video is a female cupid who travels around shooting people with her arrow who she knows has feelings for each other. The video begins at a crime scene and ends in the same way. The female cupid is dead until the male police officer, who is first on the scene, finds her attractive and falls for her, she’s then brought back to life. 

 

About the artist:

Edward “Ed” Christopher Sheeran was born on 17^th February 1991 and is a successful English singer-songwriter. He was raised in Suffolk but moved to London in 2008 to pursue his music career. Sheeran was raised as a Roman Catholic and sang in his local church choir from the age of four. He learned to play the guitar from a very young age and during his time at school he started song writing. As a child, he used to travel to London a lot with his parents and was involved with the Youth Music Theatre UK, which he is now a patron of. As a teenager he was accepted to the National Youth Theatre.

He began recording in 2005 releasing his first independent EP ‘The Orange room EP’ at this time. He then released 2 independent albums, ‘Ed Sheeran’ in 2006 and ‘Want some?’ in 2007. After moving to London in 2008 to play regular gigs, he auditioned for Britannia High and worked as a guitar technician for Nizlopi, opening a gig for them in Norwich in April of that year. In 2009 he played 312 gigs beating James Morrison’s 200 in a year. He also released another EP ‘You need me’ and toured with Just Jack. He was then invited to tour with Example in 2010 after he’d seen a video Ed posted on SB.TV.

February 2010 saw the release of the critically acclaimed ‘Loose Change EP’ which featured his first single ‘The A Team’. Without making any prior contacts he flew to LA in April 2010, where he played open mic nights around the city. He was spotted at The Foxxhole by Jamie Foxx who offered Sheeran the use of his recording studio and Hollywood home for the rest of this stay.

Throughout 2010 his fan base grew due to his YouTube following prompting him to self released 2 further EPs ‘Live at Bedford’ and ‘Songs I wrote with Amy’ (Amy Wadge, another singer songwriter)

January 2011 saw his final independent release ‘No5 Collaborations Project’ an EP including grime artists Wiley, JME, Devlin, Sway and Ghetts. It reached No2 on the iTunes chart which led to mainstream attention and sold 7,000 copies in the first week.

In April 2011, 1,000 fans turned up to a free show at Barfly in Camden.  Sheeran did 4 shows including one outside after the venue closed so that everyone saw a gig. This is also the time he signed with Asylum/Atlantic Records.

Within six weeks of appearing on ‘Later... with Jools Holland’ performing ‘The A Team’ it was released as a digital download in UK. It then entered the UK charts at No3 becoming the best selling debut single and 8^th best seller of 2011 (801,000 copies sold). ‘The A team’ also achieved top ten places in many other countries including Australia, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands.

Sheeran’s   debut album ‘+’ was released in September 2011, reaching No1 and received good reviews. It became the 2^nd best selling debut album and 9^th best seller of 2011(791,000 copies sold) and has since been certified quintuple platinum. Sheeran had 4 consecutive top ten ingles from it starting with ‘The A Team’; it also made the top ten on several international charts. He has also co-written songs for other artists such as One Direction and Taylor Swift.

Throughout 2011 and 2012 Sheeran won several prestigious music awards such as: Q Awards (Breakthrough Artist and Best Single for You need me, I don’t need you, 2011), Brit Awards (Best British Male Solo Artist and British Breakthrough of the Year, 2012), the Ivor Novello Awards (Best song Musically & Lyrically for The A Team, 2012); he also received nomination for many more.

His song ‘Give Me Love’ has featured in episodes of ‘The Vampire Diaries’ and ‘Cougar Town’. He was also invited to perform at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. These followed a tour supporting Snow Patrol on the US leg of their ‘Fallen Empires’ tour. US chart success with ‘+’ and ‘The A Team’ was followed by a headline tour of 6-9,000 capacity venues.

The 2013 Grammy Awards saw ‘The A Team’ nominated for Song of the Year but his management team; headed by Elton John, couldn’t get him a solo performance place , so Elton asked Ed to perform with him.

Taylor Swift has since invited Sheeran to support her on her 64 date ‘Red Tour’ of North American arenas and stadiums. This has meant a move to Nashville where he will stay for the majority of 2013. During this time he will be writing and recording his second album due for release in early 2014.