Ed Sheeran Breaks Another Record, Becomes First Person To Get Most Played Artist Accolades

The record-breaking news comes after Ed and South African artist Jeremy Loops have given a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their latest collaboration.

Ed Sheeran has broken another major record after his track Bad Habits catapulted him to become the most played artist, as well as the most played record. This makes the singer the first person to claim both accolades in two separate years. Sheeran previously made the achievement in 2017, which saw the release of his hit single Shape of You and the popular album Divide.

The only other artist to have topped both charts in the same year is Adele, with Rolling In The Deep being the most played single and her album ’21’ making her the top-played artist of 2011. The Thinking Out Loud singer has taken the crown for the most played artist for the past five years, with the only exception being Dua Lipa in 2020 with her album, ‘Future Nostalgia’.

The annual charts are compiled by music licensing company Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) from music usage and airplay data from radio stations and TV channels as well as public performances. Following Ed, was Tom Grennan, who claimed the second and third most-played tracks of 2021 with By Your Side with Calvin Harris and Little Bit Of Love respectively. The record-breaking news comes after Ed and South African artist Jeremy Loops have given a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their latest collaboration on Friday.

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The track titled Better Together was released last month, but the talented duo have treated fans with footage of their writing process in a new video. An excited Ed could be seen as he shared his thoughts with Jeremy before the video cut to them recording in the studio. Ed and Jeremy first met a few years ago and instantly hit it off at the private party that followed Ed’s first stadium show in South Africa. The hitmaker joked that Jeremy was a better loop artist than him and requested to write together.

News of the musical collaboration broke two years ago when Ed was said to have come out of music retirement to write new songs with Jeremy. The Shape Of You star announced back in August 2019 that he intended to take an ‘extended break’ from the music business following the end of his record-breaking 258-date Divide tour. But Jeremy revealed that he had been working on an exciting new project with Ed prior to the UK’s lockdown.