Ed Sheeran has announced that he has plans to debut his very own boy group with at least 3 – 4 members in it.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Ed Sheeran revealed that he has plans to debut a boy group and has already written multiple songs for them. While Ed Sheeran will not be in the group himself, he’ll be taking the new group on tour with him.
Ed Sheeran’s new group may not be K-Pop but there’s no denying the influence South Korea and K-Pop has on the resurgence of boybands. BIGBANG was reported to have earned $44 million USD in 2016 with 13 million total albums sold.
[Ed Sheeran] talks about the future. He’s in the process of auditioning members of a boy band he’s creating. He’s already written lots of songs for the group – ‘really, really decent. Superpop, but obviously credible. I’m gonna put three or four boys together and do all the songs, take them on the stadium tour with me.'”
— Rolling Stone Interview with Ed Sheeran
K-Pop groups have already placed themselves amongst some of the biggest artists in the world with their incredible album sales. While One Direction is still the new leaders of the world, K-Pop has been able to create multiple boy bands that all stand strong as industry leaders. TVXQ, SHINee, EXO, and BTS have sold millions of albums and have kept the reign of boy groups strong.
Music executives have also noticed the insane popularity of these same groups, from their constant features in mainstream media to their sold-out stadium shows in the U.S. While K-Pop may have been called a fad in 2008, the industry has since proven that there’s the phenomenon.
“With their razor sharp pop songs, complex mythology, and preternatural good looks, EXO have dominated the Korean charts – and since the implosion of Harry Styles et al they’ve become the biggest boyband in the world.”
— Dazed Digital
In 2017, BTS will embark on a world tour that spans ten countries with a combined 130,000+ tickets sold. The largest K-Pop festival in the world, KCON, now spans across six countries with a combined 180,000 attendees in 2016 alone.
This wouldn’t be the first time Ed Sheeran has been influenced by K-Pop. The British singer once revealed to MTV that PSY had been the influence behind the unique music video for his song “Sing”. Ed Sheeran even has a remix of the song with PSY, that’s never been released before.
“Basically the ‘Sing’ video is based on a night out I had with him, and loads of his Korean mates. I went out on this night out with Psy and everyone was wearing a Psy mask in a Korean restaurant and they were all Korean and all wearing a Psy mask and I didn’t know which one was Psy, I had no clue.
I eventually found out who Psy was and he’s just a monster when it comes to…there’s this Korean drink called Soju and so anyway I had this night out and that’s what inspired the ‘Sing’ video with all the dancing and karaoke and stuff.”
— Ed Sheeran
PSY also belongs to YG Entertainment, home to BIGBANG and some of the biggest K-Pop groups ever created. While it seems highly unlikely that Ed Sheeran is creating a K-Pop group, there may still be some influences from the genre or even a Korean member included in the group!
Either way, there’s no doubt the songs that Ed Sheeran has created for the group will be incredible. He already has experiences producing hit songs for One Direction, including some of their more popular ballads.
