Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape of You’ hits 3 billion streams on Spotify – Billboard

Ed Sheeran will end 2021 with an important achievement he has achieved. On Wednesday (December 22), the singer posted a video on his Instagram announcing that his 2017 hit “Shape of You” became the first track in the series. Spotifyhistory reached 3 billion threads.

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Ed Sheeran

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“I just heard that ‘Shape of You’ has hit 3 billion streams on Spotify, which is absolutely insane. I remember this song hitting a billion and thinking that was weird,” Sheeran said. “First song to hit 3 billion streams and I really enjoyed it. Thank you Spotify for supporting you over the years. We have had 10 great years together and hopefully, we have another 10 great years.”

The 30-year-old also took a brief moment to share some background stories about how the track became a single in the first place, revealing that he was back with Ben Cook, the former president of the company. Atlantic Records UK, who signed Sheeran – on the production of “Shape of You” as the first single from his 2017 album, ÷ (Divide).

“The song wasn’t meant to make an album… the album wasn’t finished, and when I finished the song, Ben Cook from my record label basically said, ‘You have to put this on the album, it has to be like this. so. a single.’ I told him, “I want ‘Castle on the Hill’ to be the first single, it’s going to be bigger,” Sheeran explained. “We unanimously disagreed and put both songs out at the same time, and I have to say Ben, I was wrong and you are very right.”

“Shape of You” will continue to spend a total of 59 weeks on Billboard Hot 100 graph; was followed at number 1 for 12 weeks. (Compared to “Castle on the Hill,” which peaked at #6 on the chart and spent 33 weeks on the Hot 100.) The success of “Shape of You” — along with “Castle on the Hill” and “Perfect” ” – helped ÷ became Sheeran’s second longest charting album to date, spending a total of 250 weeks on Billboard 200.

Watch Sheeran celebrate his Spotify milestone below.