“Shape of You” is a song by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. It was released as a digital download on 6 January 2017 as one of the lead singles from his upcoming third studio album รท (2017), along with “Castle on the Hill”. On 4 January 2017, Sheeran uploaded a six-second teaser video of a blue background to social media, with lyrics “the club isn’t the best place to find a lover”, which is the first line of “Shape of You”. On 6 January 2017, Sheeran revealed when hosting the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show that “Shape of You” had originally been written with Rihanna in mind.
“[‘Shape of You’] is actually a really random one because I went in to write songs for other people with a guy called Steve Mac and Johnny McDaid, and we were writing this song and I was like ‘this would really work for Rihanna,'” he explained. “And then I started singing lyrics like ‘putting Van The Man on the jukebox’ and I was like ‘well she’s not really going to sing that, is she?’ And then we sort of decided halfway through that we were just going to make it for me.”
He continued, “This was the last song that was finished, and I just didn’t put two and two together that this was even going to be on the album. I just kind of wrote it and was like ‘oh, that was fun.'”
“Shape of You” debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart on 13 January, selling 227,000 copies in its first week. Sheeran also debuted at number 2 with the song “Castle on the Hill”, making him the only artist in UK chart history to debut in the top two positions. “Shape of You” debuted at No. 2 on the Scottish Singles Chart behind “Castle on the Hill”. The song was certified Silver in the first week due to selling 200,000 units and Gold in the second week selling 400,000 units. The song remained at No.1 in its second week selling 139,000.
The song debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, selling 240,000 downloads and gaining 20 million streams in its debut week in the US, becoming Sheeran’s first number one song in the country. Sheeran also became the first artist to debut two songs in the top 10 the same week in the history of the Hot 100, with “Castle on the Hill” also debuting at number six.[23] “Shape of You” has topped the Hot 100 for four non-consecutive weeks. In its fourth week at number one, the song also topped the Mainstream Top 40, becoming Sheeran’s second number-one hit on the chart (after 2015’s “Thinking Out Loud”). On Billboard’s Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, “Shape of You” became Sheeran’s first number one on a Dance/EDM chart (his third top ten and sixth overall at Dance/Mix Show Airplay) in the United States.
It debuted at number one in France, and was later certified gold there.
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