Ed Sheeran

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Music, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Music Commentary

4.3 • 14.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2017

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is Ed Sheeran. His songs have brought him two Grammys, four Brit awards and global success. Shortly after the release of his latest album, Divide, tracks from it occupied nine of the top 10 places in the UK singles chart.

Born into a creative family, Ed had piano and cello lessons as a youngster and briefly sang in a local church choir. At the age of 11, seeing Eric Clapton play Layla on TV at the Queen's Golden Jubilee concert inspired him to take up the guitar. Ten years later, Ed himself was performing at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee concert.

Ed left school and home at 16 to focus on playing gigs in London. Despite relentless performing he failed to secure a recording contract and decided to try his luck in America. During a successful stint performing in Los Angeles, he came to the attention of the Academy Award-winning actor and musician Jamie Foxx, and within months of returning to the UK he'd signed a record deal. His first single, The A Team, became a top ten hit around the world and won him an Ivor Novello award, and his second and third albums topped the UK and US charts.

In 2015 he performed at Wembley Stadium as a solo artist for three nights to capacity crowds, and this year he is headlining the Pyramid stage on the final night of Glastonbury.

Producer: Cathy Drysdale.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the BBC.
0:03.0	Hello, I'm Kirstie Young.
0:05.0	Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4.
0:09.0	This is an extended edition of the original broadcast.
0:13.0	For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.
0:17.0	For more information about the program, please visit bbc.co.uk-radio4.
0:30.0	Music
0:44.0	My cast away this week is the singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, a musical storyteller for the modern age.
0:50.0	If you're a nurse already humming his latest chart-topping hit, there's a teenager nearby that surely will be.
0:56.0	His compositions bridge the gap between Dylan and Eminem, a troubadour with a soft spot for hip hop and grime.
1:03.0	He's garnered huge worldwide sales and multiple international awards.
1:08.0	Tracks from his latest album filled nine of the top ten places in the UK singles charts recently.
1:14.0	His career is, in part at least, an anomaly to modern music-making methodology, talented, undoubtedly dedicated and driven too.
1:24.0	But the fact remains that in an industry obsessed with image is a pasty ginger-blow in a scruffy t-shirt.
1:31.0	He says, I've been a singer-songwriter from the word Go, I have worked hard to focus my sound and style to a point where it was just me being me and not me striving to be anyone else.
1:42.0	I guess that's the same with my appearance. I've never tried to be something I'm not.
1:47.0	So welcome, Ed Sheeran. Hello.
1:49.0	You were pumping the air with your fists as the signature tune came on then. You're looking forward to this, are you?
1:55.0	Yeah, I feel like this is the peak of my career. It's all downhill from here.
1:58.0	You're not just saying that. No, I'm really not. This is literally every single weekend as a kid I listen to this.
2:03.0	You once said you have a very cool job because it's about making people happy every day. That's what you do.
2:08.0	And aside from selling the music, what is it about connecting with the people who listen to your music that you like the most?
	...

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