Ed Sheeran Removed All the Explicit Language From This Album — Here’s Why

Ed Sheeran is a very prolific superstar singer-songwriter who tops the charts and sells out stadiums all over the world. Fans simply cannot get enough of his lyrics, tunes, and voice.

He is also quite a character: He names his guitars, made a Twitter account for his cat, and titles his albums with arithmetic signs. Recently, Sheeran made headlines for doing something equally eccentric: removing all the explicit language from one of his albums.

How did Ed Sheeran get his start in music?

Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom, Sheeran started playing the guitar as a young lad. He produced his first EP, The Orange Room, when he was 14 years old.

Shereen moved to London as a teenager to focus on his music. There, he frequented the local singer-songwriter clubs and was able to release two EPs, the first was self-titled and the second was Want Some?

It wasn’t long before Sheeran was opening for established acts like Nizlopi, Jay Sean, and the Noisettes. In 2009, he released “You Need Me” and managed to play in 300 live shows.

When did Ed Sheeran hit the big time?

Sheeran’s music caught the attention of rapper Example through a video Sheeran had posted online. Soon he was touring with Example and this led to a larger fan base. This inspired Sheeran to write more songs, and he produced three new EPs in 2010.

Sheeran decided to go to the United States where he found a new fan in Jamie Foxx, who asked Sheeran to appear on his Sirius radio show. In 2011, he released his last EP as an independent artist which reached number two on the iTunes chart. Atlantic Records signed him the next month.

What were the first few albums that Ed Sheeran made with Atlantic records?

The first studio album released with Atlantic was titled ‘+‘ (Plus). This album was an immediate hit and over a million copies sold in the first six months in the United Kingdom. Sheeran then began collaborating on songs with Taylor Swift and One Direction. He also toured with Swift in 2013 on her arena tour.

Next, Sheeran wrote a single titled “I See Fire” which was a soundtrack on The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. He then created his second album with Atlantic titled ‘x’ (Multiply) which rocketed to number one in the United States and in the United Kingdom. This album also had three top 10 singles and one of them “Thinking Out Loud” won him a 2016 Grammy for “Song of the Year” and “Best Pop Solo Performance.”

The third album was titled ‘÷’ (Divide), which was released in March 2017 and it broke “the first-day album streams” on Spotify with 56.7 million listens within a 24-hour period. Singles on the album “Shape of You” debuted at number one and “Castle on the Hill” at number six on the Billboard Hot 100. It also contained the wildly popular “Perfect.”

Why did Ed Sheeran remove explicit language from his album?

Sheeran’s second album ‘x’ (Multiply) originally had some expletives strewn throughout the songs. However, after Sheeran hailed a cab, the driver managed to encourage Sheeran to clean it up by saying that it would be nice if his daughter could listen to the album, which she would otherwise not be allowed to. ‘x’ (Multiply) was release free of all explicit language.

Do Ed Sheeran’s songs usually contain explicit language?

Not all of Sheeran’s music contains explicit language but the ones that do cause a bit of a stir. For instance, his song “Shape of You” is considered pornographic in the West Java province of Indonesia. This area of the country is very conservative and when a song is labeled as obscene, it can only be played between the hours of 10 pm and 3 am. Other western pop music to be labeled this was is “Love Me Harder” by Ariana Grande and “That’s What I Like” by Bruno Mars.

Sheeran is indeed a superstar with a big heart. He has connections to some of the biggest musicians in the world such as Pharrell Williams, Elton John, Van Morrison, Andrea Bocelli, and Eric Clapton to name a few. He even talked Benedict Cumberbatch to do some hip-hop dancing on the “Sing” video. Unfortunately, Cumberbatch’s agent nixed that idea. Too bad that would have been a hoot to watch.