Ed Sheeran has landed himself a spot on Time magazine’s most influential people list – where he joins the likes of Pope Francis, Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.
The Shape of You singer made it onto the prestigious round-up, which compiles some of the world’s most powerful names, just weeks after dominating the singles chart with 18 hits in the top 20.
The 26-year-old, who grew up in Framlingham, dropped his third album Divide – which includes chart-topping singles Galway Girl, Castle on the Hill (his love song for Suffolk) and Shape of You on its track list – back in March.
Fellow pop star Taylor Swift wrote a tribute to explain Ed’s cultural significance for the magazine.
She wrote: “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.”
She added: “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.”
For the full list, click here.
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