Ed Sheeran has marked 10 years since the release of his debut album +, saying everything that has happened since has been “way beyond my wildest dreams”.
The singer, 30, shot to fame in 2011 with the launch of his chart-topping single The A Team, the lead song on his first album, which was released in September that year.
Sharing a photo of himself from that time on Instagram, he wrote: “This is me 2011 in the Worlds End pub up in Finsbury Park, just after signing my publishing deal.
“I lived all over London back then, wherever anyone would have me, but Finsbury is where I’d spend most of my evenings coz of the open mic nights there run by my mates.
“I first moved up in 2008 and on my first night got inspired to write my song The City, which was the first song written and recorded for my debut album + (or Plus if you use google).
“It’s been 10 years since the release of +, today is the day it came out.
“I’ve been making music for a very long time but I guess your major label debut counts as the start in the industry, so I’m officially a decade in as of now.
“All I ever wanted was to have a gold album and to sell out Shepherd’s Bush empire, I never thought my career would go past that to be honest, and if I got that, I’d be chuffed.
“When + came out, it went gold in the first week and I played to a sold out Shepherd’s Bush 3 weeks later.
“Ever since then everything that has come my way has been an added bonus, it’s been an incredible journey so far, and way beyond my wildest dreams.
“And it all started with an album recorded in Windlesham.
“Happy birthday +, and thank you to everyone keeping it alive, it’s not my album anymore it’s yours, and I’m honoured for it to be so many moments and memories for so many people x.”
Sheeran is one of the world’s best-selling music artists and in 2019, the Official Charts Company named him artist of the decade.
Sheeran’s second studio album, x, won album of the year at the 2015 Brit Awards, and his single Thinking Out Loud won two Grammys.
He released his third album ÷ in March 2017, which was the best-selling album worldwide of 2017 and featured smash hits Shape of You, Perfect and Castle On The Hill.
All 16 songs from the album flooded into the Official Singles Chart, before chart rules changed to limit number of entries per artist in the top 40, making it impossible for such an occurrence to happen again.
His fourth album, No.6 Collaborations Project, featured chart-toppers I Don’t Care, Beautiful People and Take Me Back to London, while upcoming album = will feature hit single Bad Habits, which has spent 10 weeks at the top of the singles chart.
