Ed Sheeran is finishing 2021 off with a huge accomplishment in his resume. The singer posted his latest news on the 22nd of December (Dec. 22,) the singer uploaded an Instagram post on Instagram to announce the fact that his hit song from 2017 “Shape of You” has become the first track in the history of Spotify’s history to surpass the milestone of 3 billion streaming.
“I’ve just heard that ‘Shape Of You’ have reached 3.0 billion views on Spotify that is crazy. I remember this song reaching one billion, and thought this was odd,” Sheeran said. “The first single to reach 3 billion streams, and I’m so happy with it. Thanks, Spotify and for the loyalty throughout the years. We’ve had a wonderful 10 years and we hope we’ll have a fantastic 10 more years to come.”
30 year-old singer also took the time to provide some background about how the track came to be a hit single initially. He revealed that he had to go between him and Ben Cook — former president of Atlantic Records UK who signed Sheeran to record “Shape of You” the first single from his album and (Divide).
“The song wasn’t meant to make the album … the album wasn’t done, and when I finished the song, Ben Cook from my record label was basically saying, ‘You have to put this on the album, it has to be a single.’ I said to him, ‘I want ‘Castle on the Hill’ to be the first single, that’s going to be bigger,'” Sheeran explained. “We agreed to disagree and put both songs out at once, and I have to say that Ben, I was wrong and you were very much right.”
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On December 10, 2018, “Shape Of You” became the first single to reach the 2 billion mark on Spotify streaming. It wasn’t the only song to achieve 1 billion playbacks, however, it was it was the 3rd reaching the milestone on June 8, 2017. The feat was achieved following the Drake song “One Dance” ( the first to achieve it) along with The Chainsmokers and Halsey’s “Closer” did so.
However, Sheeran has two songs nearing the 2 billion mark on streaming on Spotify: “Perfect” is around 1.92 billion, while “Thinking Out Loud” is getting about 1.9 billion play. If both of them reach the 2 billion mark, Sheeran will join Post Malone as the only artist to have three songs that have more than two billion plays. If both of them do, Sheeran will be the only artist to have three of these songs.
Watch Sheeran celebrate his Spotify milestone below.