Aside from a duet with Zayn Malik for the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack, Taylor Swift has been relatively M.I.A. in the music world.
Prior to "I Don't Wanna Live Forever," Swift's last major release was 1989, which came out on Oct. 27, 2014. She went on a world tour for her first official pop album, but since it ended T.Swift has been living a low-key life. Fortunately for Swifties, another star has risen amid this Swift drought: her BFF Ed Sheeran.
As 1989 was taking over the charts, Sheeran was going on a yearlong hiatus. He quit social media and took the year to see the world...literally. He traveled all over the place, stopping in various countries with other stars such as Justin Bieber, and now has returned with a vengeance, using his travels as inspiration for his newest album ÷ (Divide).
And with Sheeran's new music comes an added bonus: respite from the T.Swift drought.
Ever since Sheeran dropped "Shape of You" and "Castle on the Hill," he has consistently skyrocketed to the top of the charts. He's even setting new records, and finding out about them from other artists like Calvin Harris.
"Ed Sheeran just beat my UK record top 10s from 1 album in ONE WEEK," the Scottish DJ shared with his Twitter followers. "Congrats Ed but also f--k you I love you but also f--k you ❤@edsheeran."
The hilarious (and innocent) tweet comes after nine of Ed's songs from his latest album made the Top 10 on the U.K.'s Official Singles Chart. Divide also broke Spotify records, receiving 56,727,861 streams in its first 24 hours.
Sheeran celebrated his new songs with a secret concert at the Honda Stage for his iHeartRadio Album Release Party in New York City. With fans going wild over his highly anticipated album, it was only natural that he went on to announce a North American tour.
"I'm spending four months in America," he told Today's Carson Daly, Savannah Guthrie, Willie Geist and Al Roker. "It's the most time I've spent in any continent at all. We're going to put this tour on sale and see how it goes, and then maybe come back next year for some more."
This time around, Sheeran will be headlining arena instead of more intimate venues.
"It's all about the crowd and whether the crowd gets onboard with it," he explained. "If someone connects with you, it doesn't matter how far away you are, if you can get them connected with a song."
When the British crooner isn't dazzling his fans with performances across the country, he's letting people get to know him through his various interviews. Since releasing Divide, Sheeran has interviewed with Today, BBC News, Rolling Stone, British GQ BBC Radio 1 and more outlets. With every conversation Sheeran shows a little more of himself, filling fans with information they never knew they needed (and a nice distraction from the lack of music coming from Swift). Much to fans' delight, part of Sheeran's charm comes from the gossip he dishes about his friendship with the "Out of the Woods" songstress.
"Taylor's world is celebrity," Sheeran told Rolling Stone. "I was this 22-year-old awkward British kid going on tour with the biggest artist in America, who has all these famous mates. It was very easy. … I would often find myself in situations just kind of waking up and looking over and being like, 'How the f--k did that happen?'"
Those one-night stands came to an end once he and his girlfriend, Cherry Seaborn, got back together.
Now, he's just enjoying his success, giving fans what they want and providing relief for those who are clamoring for more from other artists.