Edward Christopher Sheeran is an English singer and songwriter who began writing songs around age 11.

The musician-on-the-street-turned-multi-Grammy-award-winning artiste began recording music in 2004, and has since then released five albums, many of which have resonated with fans across the world.

Here are some of Sheeran’s timeless hits that deserve a spot on your playlist.

8. Peru

Peru a 2021 track by Nigerian singer Fireboy DML features the the British singer. The track is said to retell the story of the Nigerian’s first summer in the United States. The infectious beat is a mixture of R&B and afrobeats.

Fireboy who’s given name is Adedamola Adefolahan, recorded the song after record producer Shizzi, invited him over to San Francisco to listen to some beats.

The chorus which repeats the word Peru, is a play on the Fireboy’s friend Peruzzi, who was born in Peru. Para stands for ‘losing control’ in the Nigerian pidgin vernacular.

First releasing Peru in July on 2021, a few months later the singer releases a remix with Sheeran, who Fireboy has described as his hero.

7. Sing

Sing is a track from the British artiste’s X album, featuring American artiste Pharrell Williams. Co-produced by Williams, the single was the first track on X.

Speaking about the creation of the song, Sheeran explained: “Well, originally [Pharrell Williams] tweeted ‘This Angels To Fly song is great’ a while ago and then at the Grammys, I don’t think he knew what I looked like, so I just went up to him and said, ‘I’m a massive fan, I just wanted to say that’s my tune!’, and then we swapped numbers.”

Sheeran explained that the track almost didn’t happen because he was not pleased with the sounds Williams shared with him. “I don’t really get jazz chords and Pharrell’s very jazzy! He played me the beat, and I instantly dismissed it, it’s not for me,” Sheeran said.

But eventually, the Don’t singer started playing his guitar to the beat and they both realised it could possibly work, then came Sing as we know it today.

6. Don’t

Don’t, the fourth track on 2014’s X, was produced by Benny Blanco and Rick Rubin. Reports are that Sheeran wrote the single after a relationship that he went through some time in 2013.

Don’t is said to be about Sheeran’s former girlfriend, English singer and songwriter, Ellie Goulding. This, however, has yet to be confirmed.

5. Beautiful People

2019’s Beautiful People talks about remaining true to one-self and not trying to become one of the many persons interested in material and worldly things.

The third promotional single from his No.6 Collaborations project, Beautiful People features American singer and songwriter Khalid.

4. Photograph

Another track from the X album, the British singer talks about preserving love in a picture format, in an effort to forever capture romance’s beauty.

Speaking on the song, Sheeran said he hoped the record would change his career path and that it would cause the album to sell, even if the rest of it wasn’t to people’s liking.

3. Perfect

The first song on this list from the artiste’s ÷ (pronounced as divide) album, Perfect, an old fashioned love ballad, was dedicated to the artiste’s then-fiancé-now-wife, Cherry Seaborn.

Released in March 2017, the singer explained that he wanted to create something better than his previous record-smashing hit Thinking Out Loud.

“I think the song Perfect is actually better than Thinking Out Loud. I think there was always a scare that Thinking Out Loud would define me and define my career. So I, I wrote a lot of songs trying to beat it and now I think, I think I have beaten it.”

A few months later the Perfect Duet was done which featured American singer Beyoncé. And on December 15, Perfect Symphony was done with Opera singer Andrea Bocelli.

2. Thinking Out Loud

Possibly the singer’s most commercially successful song to date, Thinking Out Loud, speaks about lifelong love. The track resonated with fans and shattered several records.

The single was about his then girlfriend Athina Andrelos. Thinking Out Loud was co-written by Sheeran at the age of 23.

1. Shape Of You

The first song on this list from the artiste’s ÷ (pronounced as divide) album , Shape Of You, is based around a tropical house-inspired lead melody and dancehall beat. 

In the song, Sheeran sings about meeting a girl at the bar and falling in love with her. In January of 2017, the artiste teased the song through a tweet.

Shape Of You was written to be recorded for Bajan singer Rihanna, however Sheeran later decided to keep it for himself.

In the same year of the song’s release, Jamaican dancehall artiste Ishawna released a single of her own to the Shape Of You rhythm, called Equal Rights, which stirred up quite the controversy due to its frowned upon subject.

Four years later, the British singer in an interview commented on the Jamaican artiste’s song saying, “What I like about Shape of You is..anywhere that I go in the world people know that song and there’s so many remixes of it. … I was in the Caribbean and I heard like a totally different song. …It’s really filthy but she’s just talking about her man going down on her and it was all over the Caribbean.”