Edward Christopher Sheeran, MBE (born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. In early 2011, Sheeran independently released the extended play, No. 5 Collaborations Project. After signing with Asylum Records, his debut album, + (pronounced "plus"), was released in September 2011. It topped the UK and Australian charts, reached number five in the US, and has since been certified eight-times platinum in the UK.
The album contains the single "The A Team", which earned him the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. In 2012, Sheeran won the Brit Awards for Best British Male Solo Artist and British Breakthrough Act. "The A Team" was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2013 Grammy Awards, where he performed the song with Elton John.
Ed Sheeran says he’ll retire from music if he loses Marvin Gaye plagiarism lawsuit
thefader.comEd Sheeran returned to the stand in a Manhattan federal courthouse yesterday (May 1) in the ongoing "Let's Get It On" plagiarism trial, wherein the English pop star is accused of stealing elements of Marvin Gaye's 1973 song in the creation of his 2014 hit "Thinking Out Loud." Questioned by his attorney Ilene Farkas on his plans if he loses the lawsuit, Sheeran suggested that he would quit music entirely. “If that happens, I’m done.
I’m stopping," Sheeran said according to the New York Post. "To have someone come in and say, ‘We don’t believe you, you must have stole it’… [I] find insulting… I find it really insulting to work my whole life as a singer-songwriter and diminish[es] it.” Read Next: Ed Sheeran takes the stand in “Let’s Get It On” trial The lawsuit against Sheeran was brought by heirs to the estate of Ed Townsend, co-writer of "Let's Get It On." Over the course of the trial, Sheeran has claimed that the song was inspired by his grandparents and has played his guitar in court to compare "Thinking Out Loud" to songs written by Van Morrison.
Amy Wadge, co-writer of "Thinking Out Loud," echoed the Van Morrison influence in her own testimony. “Once we had written and Ed started playing it from the phone, we both said it was a Van [Morrison] song,” she said.
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