Jamie Foxx Gave Ed Sheeran His Rise To Fame, Tested Talents Of Ukulele-Wielding Houseguest In All Black Room
Ed Sheeran has endured quite a bit of negative attention, with festival organizers and journalists calling him boring, sexless, or overly sentimental. Despite mud being slung in his direction, Ed Sheeran has achieved great success and is selling out stadiums wherever he goes.
Most recently, Sheeran headlined at Glastonbury 2017. Although The Guardian reviewed Ed Sheeran’s Glastonbury 2017 performance as “defiantly alone and thrillingly raw,” there are scores of other reviewers who felt the exact opposite.
Sheeran is painfully aware of the divisive nature of his rise to fame, introducing songs such as “Galway Girl” in a relatively meek manner.
“I’m going to play a song now that you might not like but I’m pretty sure you know the words to.”
Combined, Sheeran’s first two albums sold more than 20 million downloads, and the singer-songwriter has accumulated more than 3 billion streams. USA Today reported that Ed Sheeran is the first artist to ever debut two songs simultaneously in the Top 10. The song “Shape of You“ has remained at the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for more than five weeks. In recent years, Ed Sheeran has been nominated for and won several awards, becoming one of the top male vocalists of this generation.
What few people are aware of is how the mild-mannered, simple star rose to fame. As it turns out, Jamie Foxx took partial credit, or blame depending on your opinion of the “Shape of You” singer, for giving Ed Sheeran his rise to fame.
Missed the show? Catch up on @BBCiplayer > https://t.co/dETZyzJqEA #TheGNShow
— Graham Norton Show (@TheGNShow) May 26, 2017
Jamie Foxx recently went on The Graham Norton Show and revealed the role he played in Ed Sheeran’s rise to fame. In fact, Foxx didn’t just meet Ed Sheeran prior to becoming famous, the “Thinking Out Loud” singer slept on Foxx’s couch for six weeks.
Jamie Foxx opened his home seven years ago to the then unknown British singer. Foxx was in L.A. for his satellite radio show when Sheeran showed up to play for him.
“He comes to my radio show and… he plays and he [was] incredible.”
Knowing that he had no place to stay in L.A, Jamie Foxx invited Sheeran to stay with him at his “crib.” Foxx tells the humorous tale in detail, even describing his daughter’s reaction to the new house guest.
“I was giving him food, and my daughter was like, ‘Who do you have over here now?’ Because I would always champion an artist.”
During their time together, Foxx decided to test the talents of Sheeran by taking him to an open-mic club he frequented on Monday nights. The catch was that the club was “all black,” consisting of approximately “800 black musicians.”
Jamie Foxx is responsible for the rise of Ed Sheeran https://t.co/iDIHhEe8Y5 pic.twitter.com/VFdSaBMEXB
— The A.V. Club (@TheAVClub) June 24, 2017
Despite his surroundings and the audience, Sheeran went up on stage with his red hair and ukulele and brought the house down. Foxx fondly recalled that, within 12 minutes, Sheeran had the crowd on their feet in a standing ovation and “the rest is history.” You can watch The Graham Norton Show clip in the video player below.
[Featured Image By Christian Bertrand/Shutterstock]
