IPNews-Monrovia: Top U.K. musical star credited for remixing 1926 albums such as ‘Perfect’, ‘Thinking Aloud’, ‘I find a love” among others, Ed Sheeran has ended a  two days visit to Africa’s oldest black Republic ‘Liberia’, terming the living condition of Liberians as ‘appalling’.

The iconic musical star stated that his visit to Liberia was a dream come true for him and his team when they visited a school in Liberia’s densely populated slum of West Point, the largest and most dangerous slum in Liberia‘s capital, Monrovia, where shocking seen of appalling conditions were witnessed.

In an exclusive interview with U.S. cable channel CBS, Ed Sheeran, stated: “It was really shocking seeing the appalling conditions that people live under which is far worse than he could have ever imagined;”

“Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw, but despite all of this, everyone‘s positivity was overwhelming”.

Ed Sheeran, narrated that kids in West Point were amazing, especially when they saw his tattoos; they went nuts and couldn‘t understand what they were.

“Some of the younger kids tried to wipe them off. Everyone wanted to know what we were doing and where we were from;

“They absolutely loved singing and clapping along to my songs and for a few hours it was easy to forget that these kids live in such awful conditions;

“I was completely blown away by their eagerness to learn. They really wanted to be in school and all had big dreams for the future.” Ed Sheeran stated.

He said despite the living in one of the poorest places on Earth, Kids in they weren‘t prepared to let their circumstances hold them back.

Ed Sheeran: “I asked a lot of them what they wanted to be when they grow up and “doctor”, “teacher” and “politician” were common responses. I got a sense that they really meant it;

“They‘ve seen what life is like for people with no qualifications or jobs and it‘s the motivation they need to keep studying.”

There are hundreds of thousands of people crammed in to West Point, most of them living in squalor, so getting an education is a privilege and not something all of the kids get to do.

Told CBS that while in West Point, he and his team took a break from filming, a little girl came over to talk to him by the name of Peaches and unlike the other children he’d met, she wasn‘t in a uniform.

“She explained that since her father‘s death during the Ebola crisis, her mother couldn‘t afford to send her to school anymore;

“At just 12 years old, she had already been working for over a year helping to support her family. Unfortunately, Peaches‘ story is not uncommon. We had an impromptu jamming session and the girl could really sing. Peaches sang a song that reminded her of her father and as she did, tears started to roll down her face.

“The enthusiasm that was initially shining out of her disappeared. It was at this point that the reality of Peaches‘situation, and many, many kids just like her, hit me really hard.”

The British iconic star stated that Peaches told him she wants to be a musician when she grows up, and who knows, maybe she can make that happen, but for now, she has been forced to drop out of school and spends her days working in a filthy, dangerous slum, earning what she can to help feed her family.

“It is because of kids like Peaches and the thousands more like her across Africa that I am relieved that Red Nose Day exists;

“West Point is like a forgotten world, shut away from the rest of the civilization, yet the money you raise in the UK is helping the kids that live there. So many of them don‘t have a childhood the way you or I would recognize it: they struggle every day just to survive.” Ed Sheeran narrated.

Ed Sheeran visit to Liberia covers project that‘s using ‘Comic Relief cash’ to help abandoned children and those not in school across Liberia.

He said because of public donations, many children will be able to go back to school and get an education. For a lot of them this is their only chance of a better future and a life outside of the slum.

“I‘ve no doubt that with the right opportunities Peaches absolutely could be a singer, or a teacher, or she could very well end up running the country.”

“Just a small amount of money can make such a big difference in a place like West Point and at least gives these kids a fighting chance. I know this because I‘ve seen it with my own eyes. Just £45 could be life-changing to someone like Peaches, it could pay for a child in Liberia to go to school for a whole year.”

“I really hope the money we raise this Red Nose Day can help thousands of children, just like Peaches, to follow their dreams.” Ed Sheeran told CBS in an exclusive interview.

Edward Christopher Sheeran, MBE (/ˈʃɪərən/; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and actor. In early 2011, Sheeran independently released the extended play, No. 5 Collaborations Project. After signing with Asylum Records, his debut album, + (pronounced “plus”), was released in September 2011. It topped the UK and Australian charts, reached number five in the US, and has since been certified eight-times platinum in the UK. The album contains the single “The A Team“, which earned him the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. In 2012, Sheeran won the Brit Awards for Best British Male Solo Artist and British Breakthrough Act. “The A Team” was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2013 Grammy Awards, where he performed the song with Elton John.

His second studio album, x (pronounced “multiply”), was released in June 2014. It peaked at number one in the UK and the US, and was named the second-best-selling album worldwide of 2015. In 2015, x won the Brit Award for Album of the Year, and he received the Ivor Novello Award for Songwriter of the Year from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. His single from x, “Thinking Out Loud“, earned him two Grammy Awards at the 2016 ceremony: Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.

Sheeran’s third album, ÷ (pronounced “divide”), was released in March 2017. The album debuted at number one in the UK, the US and other major markets, and was the best-selling album worldwide of 2017. The first two singles from the album, “Shape of You” and “Castle on the Hill“, were released in January 2017 and broke records in a number of countries, including the UK, Australia and Germany, by debuting in the top two positions of the charts. He also became the first artist to have two songs debut in the US top 10 in the same week. By March 2017, Sheeran had accumulated ten top 10 singles from ÷ on the UK Singles Chart, breaking the record for most top 10 UK singles from one album. His fourth single from ÷, “Perfect“, reached number one in the US, Australia and the UK, where it became the Christmas number one in 2017. Released in 2019, his fourth studio album, No.6 Collaborations Project, debuted atop the UK and US charts and spawned three UK number one singles, “I Don’t Care“, “Beautiful People” and “Take Me Back to London“.

Sheeran has sold more than 150 million records worldwide, making him one of the world’s best-selling music artists.^[6] Two of his albums are in the list of the best-selling albums in UK chart history: x at number 20, and ÷ at number 34. In December 2019, the Official Charts Company named him artist of the decade, with the most combined success in the UK album and singles charts in the 2010s.^[7] Globally, Spotify named him the second most streamed artist of the decade.^[7] Beginning in March 2017, his ÷ Tour became the highest-grossing of all time in August 2019. An alumnus of the National Youth Theatre in London, as an actor Sheeran has portrayed a recurring role on The Bastard Executioner, and in 2019, he appeared in the Richard Curtis/Danny Boyle film Yesterday.