In retrospect, Ed Sheeran is an obvious pop star, with his song "The A Team" meriting a Grammy nomination, his guest appearance on Taylor Swift's "Red" album and his role opening for Swift during the ensuing "Red" tour. If you were to ask record labels a few years ago however, red was exactly his problem.
"I was told I was too chubby and too ginger to make it in music," the guitarist and vocalist told Britain's SBTV in an interview.
Sheeran is now working with the National Citizen Service in England to help teenagers develop workplace skills and encourage self confidence. The singer said he wasn't influenced by all the negative feedback he got.
"Every single label I had gone to at the time had told me this song wasn't a hit this song wouldn't work and the fact that I was slightly chubby and ginger wasn't a good 'marketing tool' for them," he said. "So yeah it did definitely feel like it wasn't going to happen. The way I maintained self-belief is that I knew I wasn't good at anything else so what else was I going to do and secondly with the whole look and songs that the labels rejected I knew it was really important you stay true to yourself. Being an individual makes you stand out from the crowd."
Sheeran has given the opposite effect to a number of celebrity musicians. As mentioned before, he's now writing and touring with Taylor Swift, and he performed with Elton John at the 2013 Grammy Awards. Perhaps most exciting, Sheeran is rumored to be romantically involved with Selena Gomez (and he had been rumored to date Taylor Swift prior to that).
The most recent famous fan is tennis star Andy Murray, who said he was listening to Sheeran's music before taking the court in this week's Wimbledon Championships.
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