Ed Sheeran: Bieber’s ‘Love Yourself’ was originally for my album

In this June 8, 2015, file photo, musician Ed Sheeran attends the American Institute for Stuttering’s 9th Annual Freeing Voices Changing Lives Gala in New York.  (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Justin Bieber’s 2015 hit “Love Yourself,” which had topped music charts for weeks, was initially meant for Ed Sheeran’s newest album, it was revealed.

In a Tuesday interview with Carson Daly on 97.1 AMP Radio, the British singer-songwriter, who dropped his two new singles “Castle on the Hill” and “Shape of You” a few days ago, said that Bieber’s hit, which he penned, had been intended for himself.

“That was a song I had written for ‘Divide’ (upcoming album). It just wouldn’t have made it and then Justin took it and did his thing on it and released it as a single and made it what it is,” Sheeran said.

He never expected that his calm masterpiece would be an international hit credited to the young pop star. “So, going from a song that would have never been released to – it was the biggest song of last year, it just became Billboard number 1 of 2016 of the whole year, and be nominated for Song of the Year at the Grammys…it just shows you that you shouldn’t always write stuff off,” he elucidated.

LISTEN: Ed Sheeran drops two new singles

Sheeran, 25, also revealed that another Bieber track, “Cold Water,” was also one of his compositions. “‘Cold Water’ was a weird one because I didn’t even know that song existed,” he recalled, noting that Bieber placed a “magical touch” to the song.

“It was a song I must’ve half-written somewhere at a time where I was writing a lot of songs and I did it at Benny Blanco’s house and then I got the email from Diplo just being like, ‘Yo, that ‘Cold Water’ song is dope, can I have it?’ And I was like, ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about!’ And then he emailed and was like, “Yo, Justin [Bieber] wants to hop on the ‘Cold Water’ song. Is that cool?’ And I’m just like, ‘What are you talking about?’”

Unconventionally, instead of one, Sheeran let out two singles at once and promised fans that “Divide” would be released any time soon. “I think it was quite hard to kind of pinpoint what song to go with to represent the album, so I thought I’d pick two that were kind of opposing ends of the album and release them at the same time,” Sheeran told the radio program.  Gianna Francesca Catolico

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