Ed Sheeran‘s smash hit track Shape of You was the number one song of 2017. But the singer actually wrote it for another iconic artist.
In a social media post celebrating seven years since his album Divide came out in 2017, the English songwriter shared the moment he told Rihanna the song was meant for her.
Sheeran shared a photograph of him and the Umbrella star at the 59th Grammy Awards, which captured the sweet exchange.
”At the Grammys telling Rihanna Shape of You was originally with her in mind,” he captioned the Instagram snap which showed Rihanna smiling widely.
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Sheeran had previously revealed he considered giving Shape of You to Rihanna during an interview with BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show in 2017.
Speaking on the radio show, the singer revealed while co-writing the song he had a moment where he though “‘this would really work for Rihanna'”.
“And then I started singing lyrics like ‘putting Van The Man on the jukebox’ and I was like ‘well she’s not really going to sing that, is she?'” he explained.
“And then we sort of decided halfway through that we were just going to make it for me.”
While Sheeran is the voice behind many hits across his career such as Thinking Out Loud, Photograph and Give Me Love, he has also written songs for several big names.
The English star has penned successful tracks such as Justin Bieber’s Love Yourself and Make It Right by K-Pop sensation BTS.
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He has also written for artists like Little Mix, Lewis Capaldi, Eminem, Rita Ora and The Weeknd.
Sheeran is also the lyrical genius behind several One Direction hits, including their emotional 2014 tracks 18 and Little Things.
In the same post he shared a picture of Rihanna, Sheeran commemorated his third studio album Divide by reminiscing on some other heartwarming 2017 moments.
On one slide, the singer shared a hilarious selfie from the set of his music video Perfect with actress Zoey Deutch.
“Couple of beers with @zoeydeutch on the set of Perfect,” he wrote.
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Sheeran finished off the list of ten moments from his third album era with a snap from the last night of his tour.
“Final night of the Divide tour, and campaign, in Ipswich, having a pizza and celebrating the most successful era of my career,” he wrote.
Along with Shape of You and Perfect, Divide featured some of Sheeran’s biggest hits to date such as Galway Girl and Castle on the Hill.