It has been announced that English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran has reached over 3 billion streams on Spotify. The singer achieved this great feat with his megahit “Shape Of You”. The single is the first song to reach this goal, and Sheeran is also the only artist within the streaming platform’s history to reach this number of streams.
Spotify took to Instagram to celebrate the news; the post also invites users to share their experience with the song. The social media post also features a personal video from Sheeran, the singer shared how he is “Chuffed” to break and set the streaming record. The 30-year-old artist also refers to the news as “Absolutely Insane” and continued to discuss the track’s origin story. “ [‘Shape Of You’] Wasn’t really meant to make the album, but when I finished making the song, Ben Cook, from my label, said it had to be a single – but I wanted ‘Castle on the Hill’ to be the single. We put both songs out at once and…I was wrong. Here we are with ‘Shape of You’ at 3 Billion.”
Sheeran is no stranger to immense streaming success; the singer is also a member of the platform’s Billions Club. The hitmaker earned his place twice with singles “Happier” and “Galway Girl”, both tracks have reached over a billion streams. The Billions Club is an exclusive rank and playlist curated by Spotify based on the track’s streaming figures. The playlist also features tracks such as “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by grunge icons Nirvana and “Good 4 u” by Olivia Rodrigo.
This is not the only achievement that Sheeran has had within Spotify. The singer released his fourth studio album Equals earlier this year, the release garnered great success and reached the number spot within Spotify’s global and US top 10 album debut charts. Due to the album’s popularity, Spotify hosted a very special event in celebration of the release. The event included a traditional Sunday Roast and an intimate acoustic set by the singer.
The singer’s record-breaking single “Shape Of You” was released on 6th January 2017 and is often regarded as the catalyst to Sheeran’s worldwide popularity. The track was the lead single from his third studio album Divide and went on to win the singer various accolades. The song was nominated for British Single of the Year and British video of the year at the 2018 Brit awards. The track also won Sheeran a Grammy for Best Pop Solo Performance at the 2018 awards ceremony.
In more recent news, it was recently reported that Sheeran and musical partner Sir Elton John have joined the race for this year’s Christmas number one single. This year sees the two singers double their chances of winning the festive crown, both artists appear on two entries. Along with their recently released duet “Merry Christmas”, the duo also appears on former Christmas winner LadBaby’s new entry entitled “Sausage Rolls For Everyone”.
