Ed Sheeran had a lot to celebrate this week. In fact he had 10 billion reasons to pop champagne. The singer became the first British artist to receive the Gold BRIT Billion Award for logging 10 billion UK streams. Sheeran celebrated the milestone by reposting the BRIT’s honor with the one-word reaction “Incredible!”
In an accompanying Instagram video, Sheeran held up the special edition award and told fans, “Thank you so much for all the streams. It’s a pleasure, I love being British.” According to a release announcing the award from the BPI — which represents the UK’s leading record labels and music companies — of the 10 billion streams, over one billion of them came in the last 12 months alone.
“It’s wonderful to receive the first-ever BRIT Billion Award in the UK for 10 billion streams. I want to say a big thank you to my fans. None of this is possible without you guys,” Sheeran said in a statement.
The award was handed to Sheeran by musician/actor/presenter Jordan Stephens, one half of the U.K. hip-hop duo Rizzle Kicks. It is not the first record Sheeran has put up on the UK’s Official Charts, following on the heels of him becoming the first artist to have four albums in the official albums chart top 10 for a year, as well as being the first British solo act to score a full year at No. 1 across his catalog on the official singles chart.
“We congratulate Ed Sheeran and his team on this landmark achievement,” BPI chief executive Dr. Jo Twist said in a statement. “Ed may represent the pinnacle of streaming success, but he is also among the thousands of artists who are being streamed in the tens and hundreds of millions in the UK each year and who are thriving thanks to streaming and label support. We look forward to honouring many more artists, including future talent, with a BRIT Billion award.”
Billie Eilish recently had her own BRIT Billion Award ceremony after she became the 20th artist to snag the honor from the BPI thanks to her one billion U.K. streams.
Check out Ed celebrating his Gold BRIT Billion Award below.
