YMMV / Ed Sheeran

• Accidental Innuendo: "Thinking Out Loud" gave us this gem which definitely falls to this trope considering the rest of the song
  Will your mouth still remember the taste of my love?
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Sheeran in "Don't" is either a Nice Guy who got cheated on and heartbroken, Too Dumb to Live for falling in love even after agreeing to not taking thing too seriously or a clingy creep who got way invested for the woman in the song and then wrote an entire song to smear her when she didn't reciprocate his feeling. Views of the song widely varied from one to the next depends on whether or not you believe Ellie Goulding to be the woman in question, if Goulding's "On My Mind" to be its Answer Song or simply which artist and/or songs do you prefer over the other.
• Award Snub:
  • Was completely shut out of the 2015 Kids' Choice Awards despite being an early favorite for Favorite Male Singer. It doesn't help that the nominees include Sam Smith, who could've easily been honored in the newly instated Favorite New Artist award. Fortunately, he had better luck in 2016.
  • ÷ was widely considered a frontrunner for the 2018 Grammys due to its immense commercial success and Award Bait-y singer-songwriter genre trappings. Ed was only nominated for two awards, none of them in major categories.
• Awesome Music:
  • "Don't".
  • "I See Fire", which was made for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, is incredibly beautiful and epic.
• Critical Dissonance: "Castle on the Hill" was released the same day and with critical acclaim compared to the middling-received "Shape of You". Guess which one received a historically long chart run.
• Fandom Rivalry: Ellie Goulding and Sheeran's fans don't get along because of rumor of dating from his side that ended with her cheating on him and inspired Sheeran to write "Don't" (which she denied). Not help is speculation that she wrote "On My Mind" as retaliation.
• Fan Nickname: Ginger Jesus, because of his flaming red hair and ability to hush crowds with his guitar playing.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Although his success doesn't come close to that of Adele or One Direction, he's enjoyed much greater popularity than most of the other British artists who cracked America in the last few years.
  • For specific works, "I See Fire" is pretty popular in New Zealand, Germany, Denmark and Sweden (the first two even gave him a peak #1 hit) despite missing Top 10 in his native UK.
  • Similar case with "Photograph", which peaks in the Top 10 in everywhere else except UK and Sweden.
• Harsher in Hindsight: "Nancy Mulligan" is the sweet story of Ed's grandparents running away to marry each other despite religious differences...but it can become a little saddening when you realize William "Bill" Sheeran was the same grandfather whose slow death from Alzheimer's was covered in "Afire Love".
• Hilarious in Hindsight: "Castle on the Hill" sees Ed reminiscing about singing "Tiny Dancer". He would have two No1s singles with its singer in 2021, including the Christmas number one (this is Serious Business in the United Kingdom).
• Hype Backlash: Much like Phil Collins in the 90s, Sheeran's massive success and omnipresence throughout The New '10s and beyond has given rise to a significant Hatedom.
• Memetic Mutation: The music video for "Lego House" featuring Rupert Grint became this when the comments section on YouTube was peppered by users roleplaying as Harry Potter characters jokingly praising or commenting on "Ron Weasley"'s appearance on the video.
• Moment of Awesome:
  • "Shape Of You"'s chart run: debuting at #1, spending 12 weeks there in total^note even though its time at the top after its first week was briefly interrupted by Migos' "Bad and Boujee", 27 weeks in the Top 5 in total following the debut, proceeding to pass Closer by The Chainsmokers for the longest stay in the Top 10, at 33 weeks, and narrowly managing to scrape out Despacito by Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and the remix with Justin Bieber for the #1 song of the year. As if that wasn't enough, even after crossing the 52 week point, it has managed to defy the recurrent rule by staying past #25, lasting 58 weeks, and becoming a lock for 2018's Year-End Hot 100 as well.
  • When ÷ was released, he obliterated the charts in the United Kingdom - "Something Just Like This" by The Chainsmokers and Coldplay was the only song in the top 15 that wasn't by Ed - and the the top 16 songs in Ireland were all from the album. His utter dominance led to the Official Charts Company - the body responsible for compiling the charts in the United Kingdom^note as well as those in France and Ireland, but this rule didn't apply to those charts - limiting artists to just three appearances as the lead artist, meaning a repeat of this is virtually impossible.
• Narm:
  • The line "And I know you love Shrek, 'cause we've watched it twelve times" in "Wake Me Up".
  • Any of Rick Ross's verses in his remix of "Don't".
  • "Galway Girl", a British songwriter's factually inaccurate folk-rap tribute to Ireland.
  • "The A-Team" has Sheeran lamenting about how "tragic" and "beautiful" the homeless woman's death is.
• Narm Charm: Some of his lyrics are daft but his songs still work because of his devotion to them. "Castle in the Hill" is a prime example.
• Periphery Demographic:
  • His music was never specifically targeted towards teenage girls, but obviously a cute British redhead will attract an Estrogen Brigade. He managed to turn his periphery demographic into his core demographic through his collaborations with One Direction and subsequent rise to international popularity.
  • In spite of his pop stardom, the UK hip-hop and grime scene tends to like him. This is mostly thanks to him spending a lot of time around grime artists very early in his career and being frequently featured on SBTV during that time. "F64", a song recorded in 2023 as a tribute to SBTV's founder and uploaded exclusively to that channel, was widely praised among fans as a touching tribute to where he came from. It also helps that, when given a chance to show it, Ed Sheeran is a surprisingly decent rapper.
• Signature Song: "Thinking Out Loud", "Shape of You".
• So Bad, It's Good: A portion of his fans have this opinion about "Galway Girl".
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • Many note that "Thinking Out Loud" has the same chord progression (in a different key) as Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On." Ed actually acknowledged this by incorporating "Let's Get it On" in a live performance. It also led to him being sued by one of "Let's Get In On"'s copyright owners, who found in Sheeran's favour.
  • Ironically, many critics have noted that "Perfect" is essentially "Thinking Out Loud 2.0," mainly covering the same themes and having a very similar sound.
  • Ed admitted that the vocal melody of "Shape Of You" was inspired by "No Scrubs" by TLC. It also led to a singer called Sami Chokri accusing Sheeran of plagiarising the "oh I" part from one of his songs. The judge found in Sheeran's favour.
• Sweetness Aversion: A common complaint against a lot of his romantic songs, feeling as if they are too sappy to allow for any true emotional value. This is most commonly stated against "Thinking Out Loud" and "Perfect".
• The Woobie:
  • The protagonist of "The A Team", who is a dying prostitute.

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