ED SHEERAN'S BACK (UPDATE)

The return of Ed Sheeran—perhaps the brightest star in Max Lousada’s galaxy—has officially arrived today in the form of not one but two new tracks. Naturally, they’ve shot to the top of the iTunes chart in Blighty just hours after release, with “Shape of You” at #1 and “Castle on the Hill” at #2, released by Ben Cook’s Atlantic imprint via Lousada’s WMG. Listen within.

The lyric videos have had over 479k and 457k views on YouTube respectively at the time of writing.

“Castle on the Hill” is an ode to Sheeran's home county, Suffolk, while love song “Shape of You” was originally written with Rihanna in mind before the Brit decided to keep it for himself. They are the first tracks to be released from Sheeran’s upcoming third album, ÷. It follows the multimillion-selling + and x.

Sheeran co-hosted the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show this morning, where he tipped label mate Anne-Marie for big success this year. He will revisit the Beeb for a Live Lounge session on 2/21.

Sheeran's hotly anticipated third album is likely to be one of 2017's biggest releases, and is rumoured to be preceded by a Glastonbury headline performance.