Best Pop Singers of 21st Century (No. 24)

With the primary quarter of the twenty first century coming to an in depth, Billboard is spending the subsequent few months counting down our workers picks for the 25 biggest pop stars of the final 25 years. We’ve already named our Honorable Mentions and our No. 25 star, and now we bear in mind the century in Ed Sheeran — who went from espresso retailers to stadiums with out ever altering his basic singer-songwriter id.

A single individual, taking part in the guitar alone on stage in the course of a stadium. It’s a fantasy — being an artist whose music and lyrics are in order that simple, so unifying, that they leap from the meekest golf equipment to essentially the most gargantuan venues on the planet! — that numerous singer-songwriters from all walks of life have tried to strum into actuality over the previous 25 years, and nearly each single one has come up quick. It’s the flawed instrument for this century, actually: trendy pop doesn’t perform prefer it did again when rock ’n roll was the dominant sound, so this Biggest Pop Stars listing doesn’t embody a slew of six-string-toting chart-toppers.

With that in thoughts, the dimensions of Ed Sheeran’s twenty first century success is much more spectacular. In a pop age the place singer-songwriters usually bump in opposition to their business ceiling comparatively early of their evolution, this red-headed child from Halifax stored hovering larger and better, ultimately reaching an area the place his longevity, world attraction, affect and multi-quadrant hits allowed him to face alone. He was once a teen busking on the streets of London; now, Sheeran typically finds himself within the middle of 80,000 folks, an acoustic strapped to his shoulder, nobody and nothing else in his neighborhood. And contemplating every little thing he’s finished, he doesn’t even look that misplaced.

In contrast to hitmakers comparable to John Mayer, Jason Mraz and Gavin DeGraw — singer-songwriters who burst onto the scene within the 2000s with flashy, radio-friendly pop singles — Sheeran started his journey into the highlight with a quiet, unassuming breakthrough hit. Following years of impartial releases in between road performances and open-mic nights throughout the U.Ok., Sheeran selected “The A Staff,” a pleading folks ballad a couple of intercourse employee hooked on medicine, as his debut single in 2011 – betting on its juxtaposition of finger-picked melodies and a soothing vocal tone with darkish material and stripped-down manufacturing.

The guess paid off: Within the coronary heart of the EDM-fueled, turbo-pop assault on the high of the Billboard Sizzling 100, the minimalist sing-along of “The A Staff” counteracted the spastic motion of concurrent megapop hits by LMFAO and Pitbull. There had been no scarcity of hushed, bleeding-heart singer-songwriter fare that had discovered its method to grownup pop listeners previous to “The A Staff” taking off, however Sheeran’s debut was a contact smarter (“A Staff” refers back to the “Class A medication” that the music’s topic has taken), extra honest (the best way Sheeran warbles “She don’t wanna go-o-o-o exterior, tonight” as a serious emotional payoff), and altogether extra hanging than the soundalike songs round it, climbing to No. 3 in Sheeran’s native U.Ok. and to No. 16 on the Billboard Sizzling 100. 

Past its chart peaks, “The A Staff” launched Sheeran as an early-twenties troubadour price investing in long-term. He performed the music on late-night discuss reveals, and later on the Grammys, the place it was nominated for music of the yr. Sheeran’s debut studio album, +, arrived a number of months later in 2011, scoring a good No. 5 debut on the Billboard 200. And whereas third single “Lego Home” replicated the mild guitar-pop components of “The A Staff” (with a Rupert Grint-starring music video, as a play on the Harry Potter actor’s bodily resemblance to Sheeran), in between, “You Want Me, I Don’t Want You” shook up Sheeran’s picture as a hip-hop-adjacent music trade shrug-off, with the singer-songwriter rapping over drum loops, guitar and piano. The music by no means reached the Sizzling 100, however turned a reside staple and fan favourite; extra importantly, “You Want Me” expanded expectations for what an Ed Sheeran music might sound like as his voice was reaching wider audiences.

Quickly sufficient, these wider audiences would come with Taylor Swift — a rustic celebrity but to totally cross over to pop within the early 2010s. Swift tapped Sheeran for the Crimson duet “All the pieces Has Modified,” which turned a high 40 Sizzling 100 hit as one of many album’s later singles, then introduced him on the highway because the opening act on the Crimson area tour. Swift’s co-sign was and stays an important stamp of approval for aspiring artists, however she went above and past as an early Sheeran supporter; the 2 stay shut pals and collaborators greater than a decade later, having just lately re-recorded “All the pieces Has Modified” for Swift’s mega-selling Crimson (Taylor’s Model).

By the point Sheeran’s stint on the Crimson Tour wrapped up in September 2013, he was a star in his personal proper, headlining Madison Sq. Backyard for the primary time that fall and selecting up a greatest new artist Grammy nomination. The collaborators on his subsequent album, 2014’s x, demonstrated the glow-up of the busker turned area headliner: lead single “Sing” was produced by Pharrell Williams, working the identical rhythmic magic that he utilized to Justin Timberlake’s debut solo single “Like I Love You,” and follow-up single “Don’t” was helmed by the unlikely generation-separated super-producer duo of Rick Rubin and Benny Blanco.

To this finish, x functioned precisely like its titular math image would counsel, taking Sheeran’s sonic blueprint and rising its scope and sound: “Sing” was a rhythmic pop minimize that introduced Ed’s storytelling to the membership for the primary time, whereas “Don’t” was a jilted-lover lament (a couple of fling with a fellow pop star, rumored to be Ellie Goulding) that diced up sighing harmonies amongst rapped verses. But “Considering Out Loud,” the blue-eyed soul romantic ballad, was larger than both of them, heightening Sheeran’s earnestness and sentimentality to marriage ceremony first-dance proportions. “Considering” reached No. 2 on the Sizzling 100, caught for eight weeks behind Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk!” — however successful music of the yr on the 2016 Grammys, after performing the music alongside John Mayer, Questlove and Herbie Hancock on the 2015 ceremony, made for a pleasant comfort prize.

Because the wins stored accumulating for Sheeran within the mid-2010s, he began scoring hits that appeared like Ed Sheeran songs however got here below the names of different artists. “Love Your self,” an acoustic kiss-off carried out by Justin Bieber, turned a downtempo smash from his Objective album by basically replicating the Sheeran songwriting components and serving it as a change-up from Bieber’s trop-pop hits “What Do You Imply” and “Sorry.” Within the years main as much as “Love Your self,” Sheeran additionally co-penned songs for artists like One Path and Jessie Ware, however Bieber’s hit (which topped the Yr-Finish Sizzling 100 in 2016) was an inflection level for the songwriting calls he began answering, and was adopted by high 10 hits like Main Lazer’s “Chilly Water,” Benny Blanco’s “Eastside” and Liam Payne’s “Strip That Down.” Extra typically than that, the songs co-written by Sheeran smacked of his tone and melodic instincts, a celebrity bending different views and sounds towards his personal.

In the meantime, he additionally established himself as a must-see reside performer. The x Tour was Sheeran’s first area headlining trek, and he efficiently translated his long-running stage setup — no backing band, no glitz or glamour, only a assortment of pedal loops that permit him to re-create the sonic worlds of his songs on his personal — for tens of 1000’s of ticket patrons. Whether or not perceived as a gimmick or an act of live-show wizardry, Sheeran’s touring method gave him an id in a crowded market as he accrued extra hits to play for larger audiences; irrespective of who else was out on the highway, they weren’t going to placed on a present fairly like Ed’s.

If x was the album that elevated Sheeran to pop’s area class, its follow-up, 2017’s ÷, was the venture that made him a no-doubt celebrity. That’s principally due to “Form of You,” the gargantuan lead single that may probably stand as the largest hit of Sheeran’s profession: a tropical home cocktail with a propulsive marimba line, playful falsetto and vocal chants that inject some drama into Sheeran’s tipsy flirtations, the music spent a whopping 12 weeks atop the Sizzling 100, wolfed up tens of millions of radio spins and billions of streams, and completed 2017 as the largest music of the yr. If Sheeran’s profession previous to that second consisted of revving up his pop bonafides, “Form of You” slammed down the fuel, as a totally inescapable smash that’s now formally one of many 10 greatest songs of the Sizzling 100 period.

In fact, the success of ÷ wasn’t restricted to 1 music: “Fort on the Hill,” the racing rock single that Sheeran launched on the identical day as “Form of You,” turned a high 10 hit as properly, and stands as considered one of his most emotionally resonant radio favorites. The Irish folks riff “Galway Woman” by no means reached the chart heights of its fellow singles on the observe listing, however rapidly turned a beloved fan observe, and its streams have surpassed the 10-figure mark. And “Excellent,” one other wedding-ready waltz within the mode of “Considering Out Loud,” obtained a remix that includes none apart from Beyoncé that December, which helped the one energy to the highest of the Sizzling 100. Toss in “Finish Sport,” Swift’s Status observe that includes Sheeran and Future, and Ed ended the largest yr of his profession as an unquestioned A-lister, able to main hits on his personal and holding his personal alongside fellow superstars on blockbuster collaborations. (In 2019, Billboard named Sheeran the Biggest Pop Star of 2017.)

Topping that 2017 business apex was nearly unattainable to think about — and to his credit score, Sheeran didn’t actually attempt to. His subsequent full-length was 2019’s No. 6 Collaborations Venture, a group of household-name team-ups that was impressed by considered one of Sheeran’s pre-fame tasks. The left flip tempered the sky-high business expectations of the right ÷ follow-up, though “I Don’t Care,” the album’s dancehall-adjacent duet with Justin Bieber, nonetheless turned one of many greatest pop hits of the yr, reaching No. 2 on the Sizzling 100. Additionally that includes Travis Scott, Cardi B, Chris Stapleton and Bruno Mars, amongst many others, No. 6 turned one other No. 1 album for Sheeran, in the identical month that his two-year-plus world tour in assist of ÷ lastly wrapped up, as the largest of all time to that time; he largely took the subsequent yr off because the COVID-19 pandemic raged, and have become a father in August 2020.

Sheeran’s subsequent correct solo album, 2021’s =, powered him into his second decade as a star, with the singles “Unhealthy Habits” and “Shivers” each driving uptempo pop productions and main hooks towards comfy stays inside the highest 10 of the Sizzling 100 chart. Swift appeared on a remix of the album’s “The Joker and the Queen,” and Lil Child stopped by a brand new model of “2Step”; exterior of =, Sheeran swung by a reworked model of “Peru,” from Nigerian star Fireboy DML, to notch one other world hit that recalled a number of the cross-genre pollination from No. 6 Collaborations Venture. After that, a tough pivot: 2023’s – album marked a downbeat reflection on private tragedies, together with the demise of Sheeran’s shut buddy and problems together with his spouse’s being pregnant, that was primarily produced by Aaron Dessner, who had helped Swift enter indie-folk terrain on Folklore and Evermore three years earlier. Each – and its shock follow-up/counterpart, Autumn Variations, had been too mournful to spawn any hit singles, as Sheeran seemingly issued each tasks extra for his personal peace of thoughts than for radio positive factors.

However that’s the benefit of graduating to no-brainer stadium standing: Sheeran can simply climate a business lull as a result of he’s collected so many hits, and established his model over the course of a decade-plus, whereas remaining a highway warrior and onstage drive. He’s been adjoining to the largest artists of the twenty first century whereas sneakily out-streaming lots of them; simply take a peek at Sheeran’s Spotify web page, and attempt to depend up what number of of his songs have crossed the one billion mark. And whereas Ed has by no means been the toast of tastemakers, he has unquestionably written songs which are constructed to final — new wedding-reception staples and tried-and-true pop playlist mainstays — whereas additionally influencing the subsequent technology of singer-songwriters, who’ve their sights set on the largest crowds possible.

Ed Sheeran has transcended each pop development, succeeded in a wide range of kinds, and made his voice a well-recognized sound in each context of recent pop music. He’s nonetheless monumental, and doubtless can be for an extended, very long time. Not dangerous for a man with an acoustic guitar and loop pedal.

Learn extra in regards to the Biggest Pop Stars of the twenty first Century right here and examine again on Tuesday when our No. 23 artist is revealed!