Ed Sheeran Reveals 2 Huge Hits That He Almost Didn't Release (1 Nearly Went to Rihanna!)

Ed Sheeran opened up about some of his songs that almost got left on the cutting room floor, and two of them wound up becoming some of his biggest hits.

The 33-year-old hitmaker shared a playlist that included six songs he wrote but considered not releasing.

In a video, he explained why they were nearly left behind. Interestingly, one of the songs wound up topping the Billboard Hot 100. However, Ed revealed that it was written for a popular girl group and then almost went to Rihanna before he decided to keep it for himself.

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The biggest songs were “Shape of You,” one of Ed‘s two songs to top the Hot 100, and “Shape of You,” which peaked at No. 2.

“‘Shape of You’ almost didn’t make it because I didn’t write it for Divide, I originally wrote it for Little Mix and then I was gonna pitch it to Rihanna,” he explained in a video shared on X (formerly Twitter).

When asked about “Thinking Out Loud,” he said that it was written so late in the process of creating the album that it almost didn’t make the cut.

“We thought it might go on as a bonus later on,” he said.

Did you know that several of Ed‘s songs have gotten him sued?