At the tender age of 14, Ed Sheeran began recording music and independently released his first collection of songs “The Orange Room EP”. It was after his move to London in 2008, though, that his music career really began to take off due to the release of his “Loose Change EP”, which featured future megahit single “The A Team”.
Prepared to graft from the very start, Ed Sheeran played 312 gigs in 2009 in addition to constantly releasing new material on his YouTube channel. These gigs and his widespread social media following caught the attention of Jamie Foxx, Elton John and Example. Further to this, his hard work won thousands of fans, who would show up at any small gigs he was playing. Knowing they were on to a good thing, Asylum/Atlantic Records quickly signed Ed Sheeran to their label after the release of his popular “No. 5 Collaborations Project” EP.
Ed Sheeran’s debut studio album “+” entered at number one in the UK charts after Ed secured four top ten singles in a row from the album. An opportunity to break into the US market soon came about after Ed was given the opportunity to tour with the band Snow Patrol.
Licensing of his music to television shows, and collaborations with One Direction on their song “Moments” and with Taylor Swift on the song “Everything Has Changed” paved the way for Ed Sheeran’s second studio album “x” (pronounced ‘multiply’) to hit the number one position in both the UK and the US charts.
Despite being so early in his career, Ed has already been nominated for three Grammy Awards and was the recipient of a 2012 Ivor Novello Award for “The A Team”. With these successes under his belt, Ed Sheeran’s star can only continue to rise.
Before assuming the alias Macklemore, as a child Haggerty took an interest in hip-hop at six years old listening to the likes of Wu-Tang Clan, Nas and Talib Kwali on the radio. Stepping up to the plate at 14, Haggerty began writing his own rap material largely influenced by the East Coast underground hip-hop scene emergent in the 90’s. With his eyes set on using his music to help forge relationships with younger communities, Haggerty became involved with music workshops for the project “Gateways for Incarcerated Youth”.
Initially performing under the moniker Professor Macklemore, he released his debut EP “Open Your Eyes” in 2000. Five years later and now simply now as Macklemore, he released his debut full length “The Language of My World”. Things all changed when Macklemore met producer Ryan Lewis a year later, who initially worked as Macklemore’s photographer. Forging a strong friendship, it wasn’t long before Lewis turned to producing a couple of Macklemore’s tracks. In 2009 the duo made the collaboration more of a permanent fixture, now known as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis they went on to release the “VS” EP later that year and the “The VS. Redux” (2010) which went straight to number seven on the iTunes hip-hop chart.
It was the 2012 “The Heist” album from the duo which truly sent them into the stratosphere, debuting at number two in the US charts, certifying platinum and clinching the top five chart positions in: Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The album featured the number one singles “Thrift Shop” and “Can’t Hold Us Down” commandeering charts all over the globe and turning them into a worldwide sensation. Later that year, the pair embarked on “The Heist World Tour”.
At the 2014 Grammys, the duo cleaned up taking four awards including: Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance and Best Rap song. There’s no stopping Macklemore as he and Ryan Lewis are set upon taking over the globe with a legion of fans providing the ultimate backbone.
Since his eponymous global debut in 2016, GRAMMY® Award-nominated multi-platinum artist Lukas Graham has solidified his status as one of the biggest breakout acts in music. His multi-platinum song “Love Someone,” from 2018’s 3 (The Purple Album), has now been streamed more than 1 billion times worldwide and is 18X Certified Platinum across multiple continents, with performances on Good Morning America, American Idol, The Bachelorette, Dancing with the Stars, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Late Show with James Corden, Late Night with Seth Meyers, LIVE with Kelly & Ryan and more. Lukas Graham became a breakthrough star with his 2016 self-titled debut album, spawning the 7X platinum, 3X GRAMMY® nominated hit “7 Years,” which has now been streamed 3 billion times globally. The smash was the highest-selling single by a debut artist in 2016, and catapulted the Danish superstar to sold-out tours around the world, critical acclaim from the likes of The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Billboard, and countless television performances, including The GRAMMY® Awards and the MTV Video Music Awards, where he was also nominated for “Best New Artist.” The song transformed Lukas’ life into a whirlwind — a world away from his beginnings, born on a couch in Christiania, an impoverished quasi-commune located in the center of Copenhagen.
Lukas is finally set to hit live venues across Europe again with a massive 23-date Fall tour of 2022! Believe it or not, but the bands’ latest European tour was back in 2017. Following a pandemic and ahead of a brand new album, Lukas Graham can finally announce the first headline tour of Europe in five years. Lukas Graham is currently finishing up the final recordings of a long-awaited 4th studio album.
It takes a lot of talent to make grown men squeal like teenage girls at a concert but Ed Sheeran did just that. From the second he walks on stage the energy in the room changes. From first sight of that ginger hair the entire crowd went insane. The relation between the venue size and the amount of noise that was being produced was astounding. However, his cool presence can also make an entire room go silent. It takes true talent to quiet a room of teenage girls. On the other hand, the audience that his music appeals to was various. Although I arrived at 7:30 am for the general admission show (which started at 7pm) there were also many older fans and an almost even ration of male to female. You can tell by his expressions ( and the countless "thank-you's) that Ed is truly grateful to be where he is today. The way he gets the crowd involved is unbelievable. He has them sing the back up vocals while he plays the loop pedal and sings lead. This one man can create the sounds of an entire band. At various times throughout the show I stopped singing along just to hear his amazing voice and take in what was actually happening in front of my eyes. Closing the show with his latest hit "Sing", he left the crowd singing all the way into their cars. Never have I seen such a genuine performer with such talent. X.
LIVE REVIEW Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, 2 pieces that fit perfectly together,2 pieces that make awesome music, good beats and amazing lyrics. Terrible leopard print fur-lined coats and black Spanish cowboys hats were everywhere. Young or old, they entertain their audience of all ages. Macklemore, aka Ben Haggerty, was born to be on stage. He was born to share his story of getting off drugs and alcohol and learning to respect that gay or not , we all deserve some respect for who we are and what we do. In between some songs, he had the time to tell and teach us about the important things in life, not like most other rappers, who preach about marijuana legalization. During songs like 'Thrift shop', 'Can't hold us' or 'white walls' everybody literally got crazy! The energy he has to perform those songs and to sing them with such an enthousiasm was unbelievable. With a spectacular concert like 'The Heist' you wont get the chance to sit down and check your facebook. You have to listen to the powerfull words that can mean the world to some people. If you want to go to a concert that tells a story or if you want to listen to music that can make you change your opinion about stuff such as alcohol, money or gay marriage, Macklemore tells his story to everybody through his awesome music.
I remember stumbling across a video of Lukas Graham singing in a kitchen accompanied by his friends in a band whom together they had apparently been partying since the day before and hadn’t even stopped just yet, but this didn’t stop Graham performing a song called “Drunk in the Morning” which they wrote literally minutes before the video, Graham singing incredibly, and consequently the video going viral. Since then, Lukas Graham has become such a household name in Denmark; always selling out shows where ever he goes. He performs songs such as “Red Wine” and “Seven Years Old” making the whole congregation dance along with him and his soulful voice. It’s such a party atmosphere here tonight. He even invites a lady up on stage to sing to, sings right to her and then invites the bass player to perform the most face melting bass guitar solo I think I’ve ever seen! Seriously if you get the chance to go and see Lukas Graham, then take up that opportunity!