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Hip-Hop Lives Here
Ed Sheeran is closing out 2021 with a major achievement under his belt. On Wednesday (Dec. 22), the singer posted a video to his Instagram announcing that his 2017 hit “Shape of You” has become the first song in Spotify’s history to reach 3 billion streams.
“I’ve just heard ‘Shape of You’ has reached 3 billion streams on Spotify, which is absolutely insane. I remember this song hitting a billion and thinking that that was weird,” Sheeran said. “The first song to hit 3 billion streams and I’m really, really chuffed with it. Thank you, Spotify, for your support over the years. We’ve had a great 10 years together and hopefully, we have a great 10 years more.”
The 30-year-old also took a brief moment to share some backstory on how the track became a single in the first place, revealing that he went back and forth with Ben Cook — former president of Atlantic Records UK who signed Sheeran — about making “Shape of You” the first single from his 2017 album, ÷ (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.”
“Shape of You” would go on to spend a total of 59 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart; the tracked stayed at the No. 1 spot for 12 weeks. (“Castle on the Hill,” in comparison, peaked at No. 6 on the chart and enjoyed 33 weeks on the Hot 100.) The success of “Shape of You” — alongside “Castle on the Hill” and “Perfect” — helped ÷ become Sheeran’s second longest charting album to date, spending a total of 250 weeks on the Billboard 200.
Watch Sheeran celebrate his Spotify milestone below.
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Alanis Morissette, Alessia Cara and Michael Bublé were among the Canadian artists to kick off the 2026 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony in Toronto.
The first game of the tournament to be held in Canada took place last night (June 12) in Toronto Stadium, with Canada – who are co-hosting alongside the USA and Mexico – taking on Bosnia and Herzegovina in the country’s opening match.
Later, singer Nora Fatehi, DJ Sanjoy, and rapper Vegedream took the stage to perform ‘Siir’, which appears on the official FIFA World Cup 2026 album. It was followed by Elyanna and Jessie Reyez performing another single from the album, ‘Illuminate’.
Afterwards, Morissette appeared to sing the Canadian national anthem, ‘O Canada’, followed by Yugoslavia’s Aleksandar Gajić, who played the Bosnian and Herzegovinan national anthem on violin.
Finally, Bublé closed out the show with the Sole Power Choir to perform his rendition of Sam Cooke’s ‘Bring It On Home to Me’ – check it out below.
Meanwhile, on Thursday (June 11), Shakira, Burna Boy and J Balvin lit up the opening ceremony in Mexico, while the US opening ceremony saw performances by Katy Perry, Future, Anitta, Lisa, Rema, and Tyla.
Noel Gallagher is one who will not be watching the Halftime Show, claiming that he will be “doing the half-time raffle for a leg of lamb” instead.
In other music-related World Cup news, Baddiel, Skinner & Lightning Seeds have announced a 30th anniversary re-release of ‘Three Lions’, as England head into another World Cup this summer, and John Barnes has revealed the audio clips from 1990, showing Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne and Peter Beardsley attempting his iconic rap for ‘World in Motion’.
Belle & Sebastian have also shared a buoyant 2026 Scotland World Cup anthem ‘It Only Takes One Lion’, and frontman Stuart Murdoch told NME about his hopes for the team.
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