At what age did Ed Sheeran started writing songs?

Ed Sheeran started writing songs at age eleven. The moment is closely linked to a meeting with Irish singer-songwriter Damien Rice, whose advice helped point the young Sheeran toward creating his own music.

Sheeran had already been surrounded by music from childhood. He sang in a church choir at four and learned guitar while growing up in Framlingham, Suffolk. At eleven, he saw Rice perform and later recalled being encouraged to write his own material. Sheeran went home and began working on songs, turning music from an interest into a serious pursuit.

His songwriting developed rapidly during his teenage years. At thirteen, he made an early collection called Spinning Man, and he began recording and performing before moving to London as a teenager. Some accounts describe him as writing songs “around” or “at” eleven, so the exact day is not the point; eleven is the standard biographical answer. Twelve, fifteen, and eighteen refer to later stages of his development, not the beginning.