Shape of You: The Song Ed Sheeran Almost Gave Away

By Dan Cohen · Published 2026-06-27

Shape of You, from Ed Sheeran’s 2017 album ÷ (“Divide”), is one of the defining pop hits of the streaming era — and it nearly wasn’t Sheeran’s at all. It was reportedly written with another artist in mind before Sheeran decided to keep it for himself. That instinct paid off spectacularly: it became one of the most-streamed songs in history, a fixture of charts and playlists worldwide for years.

A new sound for him

Part of what made it land was that it didn’t sound like the earnest acoustic balladeer audiences expected. Built on a bright, bouncing marimba hook and a dancehall-tinged rhythm, it was leaner and more club-ready than his earlier work — a pop song engineered, almost surgically, for maximum catchiness. It proved he could write a global dance-pop smash as easily as a wedding ballad.

The price of a hook

Its enormous success also drew it into the legal arena — like many modern megahits, it faced a copyright challenge over its similarities to another song, a case Sheeran ultimately prevailed in. It’s become an emblem of an era when the biggest hooks in pop are so valuable, and so scrutinized, that courtrooms now argue over who owns a melody.

What it measures like

On our measurements it’s bright, mid-tempo and rhythmic — a clean, danceable pop-groove built around its marimba hook, made to move to. Full profile on its song page.

Shape of You appears on Ed Sheeran’s 2017 album ÷ and is among the most-streamed songs in history; the copyright case it faced was resolved in Sheeran’s favor. These are matters of public record. No lyrics are reproduced.