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It’s quite the portfolio!<\/p>\n
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Author: Emma Dodds<\/span>Published 16th Feb 2026 Ed Sheeran<\/a> is one of the biggest names in pop music. Not only does he have success with tracks of his own including recent hits ‘Azizam<\/a>‘ and ‘Sapphire<\/a>‘ from his album ‘Play<\/a>‘, he’s also penned a number of songs for other artists.<\/p>\n Taylor Swift<\/a>, Justin Bieber<\/a>, Anne-Marie<\/a> and Westlife<\/a> all have something in common when it comes to songs they’ve released – and that is that they’ve all had songs written or co-written by Ed!<\/p>\n ‘Love Shine Down’ featuring Jessie J was an album track on Olly Murs<\/a>‘ self-titled album from 2010, co-written by Ed, Olly and four other people.<\/p>\n Hear the song on YouTube here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Co-written by Ed, ‘Little Things’ was a Number 1 hit for the boy band One Direction<\/a> in 2012. It appeared on their second album, ‘Take Me Home’, and Ed worked with songwriter Fiona Bevan and producer Jake Gosling to create it. They also worked together on ‘Moments’, from their debut album ‘Up All Night’.<\/p>\n Watch the music video on YouTube here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n ’18’ was another song released by One Direction and written by Ed Sheeran. It was a promotional song released in 2014.<\/p>\n Hear the song on YouTube here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ed co-wrote ‘Say You Love Me’ and even provided backing vocals for Jessie Ware’s track. The stripped back love song features on her fourth album ‘Tough Love’ which came out in 2014. <\/p>\n Watch the video on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Disney star Hilary Duff released her fifth album ‘Breathe In. Breathe Out.’ in 2015, and worked with Ed on the song ‘Tattoo’.<\/p>\n Watch the video on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ed joined forces with Justin Bieber<\/a> for ‘Love Yourself’ which was a hit in 2015 all around the world, reaching the top spot in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Sweden, as well as spending six weeks at Number 1 in the UK. Ed nearly kept the track for his own album, ‘\u00f7’ (Divide), but it ended up with Justin instead.<\/p>\n Watch the music video on YouTube here.<\/a><\/p>\n Ed and Biebs also worked together on ‘The Feeling’, which appeared on his fourth album ‘Purpose’ released in 2015, and collaborated on ‘I Don’t Care’ in 2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Released in 2015, this song was the third song from Rixton’s debut album. Ed worked on the song with producer Benny Blanco, and the video starred Hollywood actress Alice Eve.<\/p>\n Watch the music video on YouTube here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ed and The Weeknd<\/a> worked together on ‘Dark Times’ for his second album, ‘Beauty Behind the Madness’. As well as writing the song together, Ed also provided vocals on the track.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ed was co-writer on another Justin Bieber track, which saw the singer team up with DJ group Major Lazer and Danish singer and producer M\u00d8. It reached Number 1 in the UK in 2016.<\/p>\n Watch the lyric video on YouTube here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n ‘Pretty Woman’ is featured on Robbie Williams<\/a>‘ album, ‘The Heavy Entertainment Show’, released in 2016. Ed co-wrote the song with Robbie, teamed up with Benny Blanco again and also producer Steve Robson for the track.<\/p>\n Hear the song on YouTube here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This song was co-written by Zara Larsson<\/a> and Ed along with some other songwriters including Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid. Ed also provided backing vocals on the track, which appeared on Zara’s second album ‘So Good’, released in 2017.<\/p>\n Watch the music video on YouTube here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n James hired Ed’s songwriting talents for his fifth album ‘The Afterlove’, working on both ‘Make Me Better’ and ‘Time of Our Lives’. <\/p>\n Listen to the song on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The debut solo single from the late Liam Payne<\/a> was co-written by Ed, Liam and Quavo who also features on the track. Ed also provided uncredited backing vocals for the song, which reached Number 3 in the UK charts. They also worked together on Liam’s 2019 single ‘Stack It Up’ featuring A Boogie wit da Hoodie.<\/p>\n Watch the music video on YouTube here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n DJ Snake and Lauv worked together on ‘A Different Way’ in 2017, roping in Ed for the songwriting along with Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid, as well as Steve Mac, Ilsey Juber and Lindy Robbins.<\/p>\n Watch the official video on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ed and Olly teamed up once again in 2018 for Olly’s comeback single, ‘Moves’, which also featured vocals from Snoop Dogg. The track featured on the soundtrack for Johnny English Strikes Again.<\/p>\n Watch the music video on YouTube here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ed helped Jess Glynne<\/a> pen this song, which is all about how people shouldn’t be forced to hide behind a mask and should feel free to express themselves. Jess has stated that it’s one of her “favourites”, and that it’s “close to her heart”.<\/p>\n Watch the music video on YouTube here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Little Mix’s<\/a> feminist powerhouse track featuring Nicki Minaj<\/a> was actually co-written by Ed himself along with Jess Glynne for her own album, ‘Always In Between’, but said that it “didn’t fit” with the other songs and gave it to Little Mix instead. <\/p>\n Watch the music video on YouTube here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ed worked with country music star Keith Urban on his single ‘Parallel Line’ which featured on his 10th album ‘Graffiti U’. Ed and Keith worked with Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid as well as Benny Blanco, Amy Wadge and Julia Michaels – and also features a sample of ‘Everglow’ by Coldplay<\/a> from their album, ‘A Head Full of Dreams’.<\/p>\n Listen to the song on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Shawn Mendes enlisted the help of Ed for his third album, ‘Shawn Mendes’, for album track ‘Fallin’ All in You’ which was co-written with Ed’s frequent collaborator, Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid, and producer\/DJ Fred Again along with Shawn himself, Teddy Geiger and Scott Harris.<\/p>\n Listen on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Boyzone teamed up with Ed for ‘Because’, the lead single from their final album ‘Thank You & Goodnight’, released in 2018. It was written by Ed along with lead singer Ronan Keating as well as John Shanks and Amy Wadge.<\/p>\n Watch the official music video on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Singers Halsey and Khalid teamed up with producer Benny Blanco on 2018 track ‘Eastside’, working with Ed on the songwriting. The track went to Number 1 in the UK and was also certified 2x Platinum.<\/p>\n Watch the official music video on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n South Korean band BTS<\/a> worked with Ed on their 2019 song ‘Make It Better’, which appeared on their EP ‘Map of the Soul: Persona’. They released another version of the song later in 2019 with featured singer Lauv. Ed also teamed up with BTS once more in 2021 for their global smash hit ‘Permission to Dance’.<\/p>\n Watch the official music video on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ed Sheeran wrote the comeback single for Irish band Westlife, ‘Hello My Love’, which appeared on their 2019 album ‘Spectrum’. The song became a massive hit with Westlife fans. Ed also worked with Westlife on some of their other ‘Spectrum’ album tracks: ‘Better Man’, ‘Dynamite’, ‘My Blood’ and ‘One Last Time’, as well as non-album track ‘Anywhere’.<\/p>\n Watch the music video on YouTube here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Alicia made use of Ed’s songwriting skills for her track ‘Underdog’, featuring on her 2020 album ‘Alicia’. Co-written by Alicia, Ed and his frequent songwriting collaborators Johnny McDaid and Amy Wadge among others, the track was certified Platinum in the US.<\/p>\n Listen on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In July 2021, Anne-Marie released her track ‘Beautiful’, co-written by Ed Sheeran and Max Martin. The track features on her second studio album ‘Therapy<\/a>‘, which was released on 23rd July 2021.<\/p>\n Watch the lyric video on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Fans were over the moon when JLS announced that they were getting back together – not only were the boys heading on a reunion tour, but they were even releasing new music. And what better way to break out onto the music scene again than by releasing a track co-written by Ed Sheeran?! The track ‘Eternal Love’ featured on the JLS album ‘2.0’, released on 3rd December 2021.<\/p>\n Watch the music video on YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi<\/a> spoke about the process of writing his song ‘Pointless’<\/a> with Ed, telling the BBC he was hesitant to collaborate with him: “Every British artist who has a Number 1 record seems to have Ed on it. That’s a testament to how good he is but I was wary of it. My ego was going, ‘I don’t want people thinking Ed wrote my song’.”<\/p>\n In the end, the pair did work together and co-wrote the track, which was released on Friday 2nd December and featured on Lewis’ second album, ‘Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent’<\/a>, released in 2023.<\/p>\n Watch the lyric video on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ed is credited as a writer on David Guetta’s<\/a> huge track ‘Baby Don’t Hurt Me’, which features Anne-Marie and Coi Leray. The song also features a sample from the classic dance track, ‘What is Love?’ by Haddaway.<\/p>\n Watch the video on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Little Mix<\/a> singer Perrie Edwards<\/a> released her first solo single in April 2024 and it was co-written by Ed Sheeran. The singer revealed Ed sent her the song which she loved, and after making a few tweaks to it she recorded it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Jon co-wrote ‘Living in Paradise’ with Ed for Bon Jovi’s 2024 album ‘Forever’ while staying for the weekend at the rock legend’s house with his family. <\/p>\n Listen on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ed Sheeran released ‘Shape of You’ in 2017, however the singer revealed that he originally thought he would offer the song to Rihanna<\/a>. Ed opened up about the song saying that he planned to write some songs for other artists and thought ‘Shape of You’ would be good for Rihanna, however as he came up with the lyrics, he revealed he didn’t think she would sing them, so he kept it for himself.<\/p>\n You can hear hits from Ed Sheeran on Hits Radio!<\/p>\n Taylor Swift\u2019s biggest collaborations: From Ed Sheeran to Shawn Mendes \ud83c\udfb6<\/a><\/p>\n Ed Sheeran’s career journey: From street busker to global superstar<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nWhich other artists has Ed Sheeran written for?<\/h2>\n
Olly Murs – ‘Love Shine Down’, featuring Jessie J (2010)<\/h4>\n
One Direction – ‘Little Things’ (2012)<\/h4>\n
One Direction – ’18’ (2014)<\/h4>\n
Jessie Ware – ‘Say You Love Me’ (2014)<\/h4>\n
Hilary Duff – ‘Tattoo’ (2015)<\/h4>\n
Justin Bieber – ‘Love Yourself’ (2015)<\/h4>\n
Rixton – ‘Hotel Ceiling’ (2015)<\/h4>\n
The Weeknd – ‘Dark Times’ (2015)<\/h4>\n
Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber and M\u00f8 – ‘Cold Water’ (2016)<\/h4>\n
Robbie Williams – ‘Pretty Woman’ (2016)<\/h4>\n
Zara Larsson – ‘Don’t Let Me Be Yours’ (2017)<\/h4>\n
James Blunt – ‘Make Me Better’ (2017)<\/h4>\n
Liam Payne – ‘Strip That Down’, featuring Quavo (2017)<\/h4>\n
DJ Snake and Lauv – ‘A Different Way’ (2017)<\/h4>\n
Olly Murs – ‘Moves’ featuring Snoop Dogg (2018)<\/h4>\n
Jess Glynne – ‘Thursday’ (2018)<\/h4>\n
Little Mix – ‘Woman Like Me’ featuring Nicki Minaj (2018)<\/h4>\n
Keith Urban – ‘Parallel Line’ (2018)<\/h4>\n
‘Fallin’ All In You’ – Shawn Mendes (2018)<\/h4>\n
Boyzone – ‘Because’ (2018)<\/h4>\n
Benny Blanco, Halsey and Khalid – ‘Eastside’ (2018)<\/h4>\n
BTS – ‘Make It Right’ (2019)<\/h4>\n
Westlife – ‘Hello My Love’ (2019)<\/h4>\n
Alicia Keys – ‘Underdog’ (2020)<\/h4>\n
Anne-Marie – ‘Beautiful’ (2021)<\/h4>\n
JLS – ‘Eternal Love’ (2021)<\/h4>\n
Lewis Capaldi – ‘Pointless’ (2022)<\/h4>\n
David Guetta, Anne-Marie, Coi Leray – ‘Baby Don’t Hurt Me’ (2023)<\/h4>\n
Perrie – ‘Forget About Us’ (2024)<\/h4>\n
Bon Jovi – ‘Living in Paradise’ (2024)<\/h4>\n
Did Ed Sheeran write ‘Shape of You’ for Rihanna?<\/h2>\n
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