Ed Sheeran’s massive pop star status has been confirmed many times over the years, but he managed to achieve one of his biggest feats yet this week. The singer’s 2018 track “Shape Of You” officially reached 3 billion streams on Spotify, becoming the first-ever song on the platform to do so. Sheeran just shared his reaction to the news, saying he’s beyond happy about the achievement seeing as he almost never released the song.
Sheeran explained the story behind “Shape Of You” in an Instagram video. The singer said he had already finalized his entire Divide album and penned “Shape Of You” while he was writing music for other artists. Thankfully, one of his friends at his record label convinced him to keep the song for himself and release it as a single — and he’s sure happy he did:
“Hey guys, I just heard ‘Shape Of You’ has reached 3 billion streams on Spotify, which is absolutely insane. I remember this song hitting a billion and thinking that was weird. It’s the first song to hit 3 billion streams and I’m really, really chuffed with it. Thank you Spotify for all your support over the years. We’ve had a really great ten years together and hopefully we have a great ten years more.
This song, I don’t know, wasn’t meant to make the album. I had gone in to write songs for other people when the album was done. When I finished the song, Ben Cook from my record label was saying, ‘You have to put this on the album, it has to be a single.’ I said to him, ‘I want ‘Castle On The Hill’ to be the first single, that’s going to be bigger.’ We agreed to disagree and put both songs out at once and I have to say that, Ben, I was wrong and you were very much right.”
Watch Sheeran’s reaction to “Shape Of You” earning 3 billion streams above.
Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.