"See you next year with a new album."
Ed Sheeran has confirmed that he plans to release his next album in 2023.
The 31-year-old singer, who was announced to have broken another UK chart record by becoming the first British artist with four albums to spend a full year (52 weeks) in the Top 10, made the announcement via a video he posted on Instagram .
In the video Ed Sheeran also celebrated the fact that 'Shivers', the second single from his 2021 album '=' (Equals), has now reached one billion streams on Spotify. It is his 11th song as an artist to break the one billion streams barrier on Spotify and 15th as a creator.
While he didn't reveal much information, such as the release date and title, Ed Sheeran said during the video that he is filming a music video for his new album "coming out next year."
"So 'Shivers' just hit one billion streams on Spotify, which is my 11th song as an artist and my 15th song as a creator... I'm over the moon about that, thank you to everyone who streams this song," he said in the short video, in which the wind can be heard whipping in the background.
"I'll be celebrating by shooting a music video for my brand new album, which will be released next year," he added with a smile.
Ed Sheeran fans have long speculated that the singer's new record is likely to be titled '-' (Subtract) following the mathematical title pattern of his previous albums.
'Subtract' would be the next logical step considering Ed Sheeran debuted in 2011 with '+' (Plus), followed by 'x' (Multiply) in 2014, then '÷' ( Divide) in 2017 and "=" (Equals) in 2021.
Last month, regular songwriting collaborator Ed Sheeran and Snow Patrol's Johnny McDaid won European Song of the Year for their global hit 'Bad Habits' at the 2022 BMI London Awards.
The award is given by the British public performance rights collective BMI to the song of the previous year by British or European creators with the most performances.
'Bad Habits' reigned for 11 consecutive weeks at the UK top. Ed Sheeran won European Song of the Year again in 2016, 2017 and 2018 for 'Shape of You', which he also co-wrote with Johnny McDaid.
