On the Verge with Ed Sheeran

By Korina Lopez, USA TODAY

Posted June 17, 2012

The breakthrough British musician says, "My goal for 2012 is to make it in America."

Crowning glories: Baby-faced Ed Sheeran, 21, may look harmless, but he has the ferocious determination of a big star. With two Brit Awards under his belt, off four nominations (more than Adele received), a sold-out headlining tour of U.S. clubs and theaters and a recent performance at Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, it seems he's already achieved stardom.

At the Jubilee, he played alongside Elton John, Jay-Z and Stevie Wonder. How did he land that gig? "I hear that one of the royal grandkids is a fan of mine," he says. It doesn't hurt that Sir Elton's a fan, too.

Sheeran also penned pop ballad Moments for boy band One Direction and had his own Give Me Love featured on CW's TheVampire Diaries.

A+ for effort: Sheeran seemingly has come out of the blue, with his album + selling 1 million copies in two months in the U.K. and single The A Team climbing to No. 8 on USA TODAY's adult-alternative chart. But the flame-haired singer has paid his dues. At 16, he quit high school in Suffolk to pursue music full time. "I was playing in London and missing a lot of school. I dropped out, moved out of my house and did shows all over the country with nothing but my rucksack (backpack) and guitar," he says. "My parents weren't too happy that I dropped out of school, but they've always been supportive."

He proved his sincerity by playing 300 gigs in 2009. "I treated it like a day job. I'd wake up, go to the studio, record, and then go to a show," he says. "Since I got famous, though, my life has gotten easier. My schedule is made for me and so it's more organized. Before, all the responsibility lay on my shoulders. I'm lucky."

He raps?: At first glance, with his casual T-shirt and jeans style and acoustic guitar, it's surprising that he finds as much inspiration in Eminem as he does Stevie Wonder. "I think of myself as more of a singer that listens to rap music," Sheeran says. "I like to write my lyrics with a bit of fight and then I put my own beat to it."

The moment: He broke through in the U.K. when he was featured in 2010 on SB.TV, an online programmer that spotlights viral, Web-based, often amateur videos. "The SB.TV clip was the first real tipping point in the U.K.," he says. That exposure led to his No. 5 Collaborations Projects EP going No. 2 on iTunes, "which is when (the rest of the) U.K. sat up and took notice." But Sheeran admits that there were times he felt like giving up. "Every artist does. There were times that I thought I'd never make it. But I always turn up. I'm glad I stuck with it," he says. "My goal for 2012 is to make it in America."