Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is, no doubt, a known name here in the Philippines. After years of waiting since his rise to fame, Sheeran’s Filipino fans had been waiting for him to hold a show in the country. And in March 2015, it finally happened. The concert was a sold-out success.
At the end of 2015 though, Sheeran announced he was going on a hiatus. And it was only exactly a year after that the singer broke his silence and came back to life in social media and under the limelight. He was away for one year.
So what did everyone’s beloved ginger do in his gap year?
In a recent interview with BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show, the singer opened up about taking that time off traveling extensively. “I never really saw anything other than a hotel room, a venue and a bar [while touring], so I wanted to go traveling properly,” he said. “No one really cares about me in Japan. There are like two people that like me in Japan…I specifically picked places that I wasn’t really liked.”
But that plan didn’t always work out. You can’t always expect to not be liked when you are Ed Sheeran.
At the tail-end of his year-long break, Sheeran set up a recording studio in a cruise ship to make some music. But, guess what, the ship’s staff was predominantly…yes–Filipino.
Sheeran talked about the experience: “My biggest market in the world is the Philippines and every staff member on the boat was Filipino, so I just had a wave of people come to my room every five minutes asking for selfies,” the singer shared. “I spent my whole time taking pictures with Filipino people.”
But it seems despite the deluge of Pinoy fans coming up to Sheeran “every five minutes”, the singer was still successful in working on new music for his next album. Just a week ago, Ed Sheeran happily shared not just one, but two song songs because he’s “been away for a bit”. You can listen to his two new tracks here: Ed Sheeran is Finally Back and Shares Two New Tracks–Listen Here!
Ed Sheeran’s new album, Divide, will come out on March 2017.
What do you think of this story? Are you one of Ed’s loyal Filipino fans? Share your thoughts in the comments!
