Ed Sheeran has been crowned the UK’s Official Number 1 Artist of the Decade.
The 28-year-old pop megastar – who was still little known 10 years ago – has been honoured with the Official Chart Record Breaker Award accolade by the Official Charts Company to recognise his achievement as the star with the most number ones, 12 across the Albums Chart and Official Singles Chart, and for spending 79 weeks at the top of the chart.
The ‘Take Me Back To London’ hitmaker follows in the footsteps of Sir Paul McCartney – who has had 22 number ones – and Justin Bieber, who became the first act to hold all top three positions in the Official Singles Chart at the same time.
The trio are the only artists to ever receive the Official Chart Record Breaker prize.
Ed – who is currently on a break – said: "Thank you to everyone who’s supported me over the past 10 years, especially my amazing fans. Here’s to the next 10!"
Martin Talbot, Chief Executive of the Official Charts Company, comments: "Ed truly has dominated this decade and is a worthy recipient of this amazing new award.
"At the start of the decade, he was a little known (albeit highly rated) young 18-year-old lad from Suffolk – but his catalogue of achievements since then are genuinely remarkable. Today, he is firmly established among the highest level of global music superstars."
Ed has also claimed the UK’s biggest track of the decade, with ‘Shape of You’ from his record-breaking LP ‘Divide’.
The catchy number spent 14 weeks at Number one in 2017, amassing over 4.5m chart sales.
‘Thinking Out Loud’ and his Christmas number one, ‘Perfect’, made the Top 5 End of the Decade List.
The flame-haired singer/songwriter has spent 38 weeks at number one on the Official Singles Chart to date, selling an impressive 53.8m combined singles, whilst his songs have been streamed a staggering 4.6 billion times in the UK alone.
In the Top 10 Singles of the Decade, ‘Shape of You’ is followed by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ mega-hit ‘Uptown Funk’, with 3.28 million sales.
Whilst Adele has beaten Ed to claim the top Albums of the Decade, with ’21’ at the top and ’25’ in second position, followed by Ed’s ‘X’ and ‘Divide’.
Sam Smith’s 2014 ‘In The Lonely Hour’ LP has claimed the biggest Debut Album of the Decade.
Take That’s 2010 album ‘Progress’ is the biggest album by a group or band.
And Bon Jovi’s 2010 ‘Greatest Hits: The Ultimate Collection’ has claimed the Greatest Hits Album of the Decade.
Ed Sheeran crowned UK’s Official Number 1 Artist of the Decade
