It’s a role his good friend Taylor Swift has taken up on seasons past, while Snoop Dogg was the Mega Mentor for season 20.
Sheeran will be expected to impart his considerable wisdom to this year’s top crop. Working alongside coaches Kelly Clarkson, Ariana Grande, John Legend and Blake Shelton, he’ll guide performers’ vocal and technical choices and help tailor their songs for the best chance to progress.
At the Knockout phase, where the artists are paired off, coaches alone can choose the winner to advance to the Live Playoffs.
Sheeran enters the contest as arguably the hottest artist in the world.
Based on history and recent events, everything is pointing to Sheeran cleaning up on sales charts when his new album = (equals) drops Oct. 29.
The first single from it, “Bad Habits,” blasted to No. 1 on Billboard’s two Global charts and the Official U.K. Singles Chart. “Bad Habits” ruled the U.K. chart for 12 weeks, at which time it was replaced by another new Sheeran song, “Shivers,” which has led the survey for three weeks and is on track for a fourth.
The IFPI named Sheeran as the Global Recording Artist of 2017 following the release of his third album ÷ (Divide), which yielded “Shape Of You,” the most-streamed song ever on Spotify.
With his forthcoming =, Sheeran completes the sequence of albums named after mathematical symbols, following + (from 2011), x (2014) and ÷ (2017).