Ed Sheeran calls out his pop peers for "actively” wanting him to fail
10 November 2021, 16:03
Behind the scenes of Ed Sheeran’s Overpass Grafitti video
"My peers largely, I feel, in the pop scene often don’t want me to succeed. I’ve never felt accepted by my scene."
Ed Sheeran has opened up about his place in the music industry and stated that he doesn't feel accepted by his pop peers.
Last month (Oct 29), Ed Sheeran released his fifth studio album =. The new project contains the UK Number 1 singles 'Bad Habits' and 'Shivers', and it has already topped charts all around the world. In fact, = had the best opening week sales of any album in the UK since Ed's last solo album ÷ sold a record-breaking 672,000 chart copies in just one week.
However, in spite of Ed's of commercial success, he's revealed that he still feels like an outsider in the pop music world.
READ MORE: Ed Sheeran thought he was "gay for a bit" because he liked Britney Spears and musicals
Speaking on The Breakfast Club, Ed said: "I’m not accepted by my genre. I thought it was quite telling that my album came out and the only people that emailed me in-depth about liking it were like Dave and Stormzy and people from the UK rap and UK grime scene. My peers largely, I feel, in the pop scene often don’t want me to succeed. I’ve never felt accepted by my scene."
Ed elaborated further on the Halfcast podcast. He said: "In terms of people that actually root for me and want me to win... I know so many artists who, whenever I win, scoff, and actually actively want me to fail. It's Stormzy, the producer Fraser T Smith, Dave and Elton John who all sent emails about the album. So many artists actively want me to fail. But they would never tell me, I just know. I hang around with people and I hear things."
Ed also called out critics for having preconceptions about his music. He said that they "savaged" = in the press and added: "Music critics fucking hate me. Everyone has already made up their mind. When my albums come out it is basically the Olympics of insults that they can throw. Like who can do the best put-down."
Listen to ‘The Power of Little Mix’ podcast
Click the picture below to listen to 'The Power Of Little Mix' on Global Player, celebrating 10 years of one of the biggest girl groups of all time, with exclusive interviews with Jade, Leigh-Anne and Perrie, as well as their closest collaborators and inner circle.
