Ed Sheeran is now at the stage of his career where he can literally do nothing wrong; you get the feeling that if he confessed to being a serial killer, people would still say 'But he's meant to be a really nice guy'.
Topping off his biggest year to date, Sheeran has been named on the 'Time 100' list of most influential people in the world - and his blurb was written by none other than his good friend Taylor Swift.
To say that Swift's tribute is gushing is to put it mildly.
"As a young, precocious redheaded boy growing up in Framlingham, Suffolk, Ed Sheeran decided he wanted to be a musician," she wrote. "He started writing songs and playing instruments like so many hopefuls do, but something very different happened that would set in motion one of the most impressive self-made careers in music.
"Whether by choice or an unconscious evolution, when he decided on his musical ambitions, Ed became less of a boy and more of a tank. He is protected by an impenetrable and ever-present armor of enthusiasm that has helped him endure any setback, letdown or underestimation. His reaction to any idea that fails is to almost immediately come up with a new one. He’s like a fighter who pops back up on his feet before you even noticed he’d been knocked down."
She added: “A few years ago, in a rare moment of admitting feeling defeated, Ed said to me, ‘I’m never going to win a Grammy.’ Yes, you are, I said. You’re going to sweep the whole thing one of these years. It was a few weeks later when he met me in a dance-shoe store in London, where I was picking out rehearsal outfits, and said, ‘You have to hear this.’ It was a song he’d just finished called ‘Thinking Out Loud,’ which went on to win Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 2016.
“Congratulations to my friend Ed, for the legacy you’ve already built and the brilliant hook you probably just came up with five minutes ago."
Other musicians on the list included Chance the Rapper, Alicia Keys, John Legend and Demi Lovato.
See the full list here.
