Shape of You

It was one of four songs written in one day. Ed Sheeran wrote this song with Rihanna in mind, when hosting the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show he said: “Shape of You is actually a really random one because I went in to write songs for other people with a guy called Steve Mac and Johnny McDaid, and we were writing this song and I was like ‘this would really work for Rihanna,'” he explained. “And then I started singing lyrics like ‘putting Van The Man on the jukebox’ and I was like ‘well she’s not really going to sing that, is she?’ And then we sort of decided halfway through that we were just going to make it for me. This was the last song that was finished, and I just didn’t put two and two together that this was even going to be on the album. I just kind of wrote it and was like ‘oh, that was fun.”
Sheeran released “Shape of You” and “Castle on the Hill” simultaneously, when asked about the reason on Carson Daly Radio show, he explained: “I think it was quite hard to kind of pinpoint what song to go with to represent the album, so I thought I’d pick two that were kind of opposing ends of the album and release them at the same time. And also, since I’ve been away, the way that albums are being released are now you have to just kind of make up your own rules. There’s no rule book to follow, so you just have to do things that people aren’t doing, and I thought making two double A-side singles with two videos that go to radio at the same time, it’s a talking point. And even if only one of the songs works, it still got people to talk about them.”

Release Date: January 6, 2017

Songwriter/s: Ed Sheeran – Steve Mac – Johnny McDaid.

Label: Asylum – Atlantic

Chart Rankings: In the UK, the song debuted at number 1 on the Official Charts Company. Sheeran also released “Castle on the Hill” which peaked at number 2 making him the only artist in the UK chart history to debut in the top two positions. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) certified it Platinum for sales over 600.000 copies. In the US, “Shape of You” topped the Billboard Hot 100, it was streamed over 20 million times in its first week. The song achieved worldwide success, it topped the charts in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. It was certified Double platinum in Australia and Canada. In Italy, New Zealand and Poland it was certified Platinum, while in Belgium, Denmark, France and Germany it was certified Gold.

Artist’s age on Release Date: Edward Christopher “Ed” Sheeran was 26 years old when he released this song.

Cover Versions: Shawn Mendes – J.Fla – Leroy Sanchez – Alex Aiono – Madilyn Bailey – Bars & Melody – Hobbie Stuart – Sam Tsui – Samantha Harvey – Jonah Baker (acoustic) – Macy Kate – Annie Pattison – Hybrid Life – Drew Tabor – BTWN US – Pneuma – Rain Paris – The Vamps – Other amateur artists covered the song on Youtube.