Ed Sheeran has never felt accepted by pop peers
Ed Sheeran has never felt accepted by the pop scene.
The Bad Habits singer, who is currently at the top of the albums chart on both sides of the Atlantic with his latest release, = (Equals), admitted during an appearance on The Breakfast Club that despite his commercial success, he still feels like an outsider in the pop world.
"I'm not accepted by my genre. I thought it was quite telling that my album came out and the only people that emailed me in-depth about liking it were like Dave and Stormzy and people from the U.K. rap and U.K. grime scene. My peers largely, I feel, in the pop scene often don't want me to succeed... I've never felt accepted by my scene."
He made similar comments on the Halfcast Podcast, noting that he feels like his pop peers "actively want me to fail" and musicians in the grime and rap scenes are the only ones who root for his success.
"In terms of people that actually root for me and want me to win... I know so many artists who, whenever I win, scoff, and actually, actively want me to fail," he shared. "But they would never tell me, I just know. I hang around with people and I hear things.
"I feel like my own section, that I'm meant to be part of, don't like me and don't rate my music. It's quite telling that Dave and Stormzy are both emailing me saying they like my album but none of my pop peers are."
Ed previously admitted he disliked going to award shows because of the atmosphere of "resentment and hatred" as the ceremonies are filled with "lots of people wanting other people to fail".
