Rising pop star Anne-Marie met her tourmate Ed Sheeran about eight years ago, when their music circles intersected in the City of Light. “We…
Rising pop star Anne-Marie met her tourmate Ed Sheeran about eight years ago, when their music circles intersected in the City of Light.
“We just hung out in Paris for two days and became really good friends really quickly,” says the 27-year-old singer, whose full name is Anne-Marie Nicholson. “And we’ve never stopped hanging out and having fun.”
But now these Brits are mixing pleasure with business: Anne-Marie is currently opening for Sheeran on his stadium tour, which hits MetLife Stadium Sept. 21 and 22. Before then, she’ll headline two New York club shows: Bowery Ballroom on Monday and Rough Trade NYC on Tuesday.
This comes on the heels of “2002” — the latest single from Anne-Marie’s gold debut album, “ Speak Your Mind ” — which was co-written by Sheeran. The nostalgic ditty — which gives lyrical love to late ’90s and early ’00s faves, such as Britney Spears, *NSYNC and Nelly — is the follow-up to “Friends,” Anne-Marie’s “Speak” hit with EDM star Marshmello.
Born in Essex, England, the London-based artist got her start in musical theater, appearing in a West End production of “Les Misérables” when she was only 5 and later sharing the stage with a young Jessie J in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Whistle Down the Wind.”
“Her voice was already amazing,” says Anne-Marie of the “Bang Bang” belter. “She was kinda teaching everyone else how to sing when we were, like, 10.”
Growing up, Anne-Marie also kicked butt in martial arts, becoming an international karate champion.
“I still really need to do karate and get a bit of that [energy] out of me,” she says of the sport that gave her 2015 debut EP, “Karate,” its name.
After being a featured vocalist with Sean Paul on Clean Bandit’s global smash “Rockabye” in 2016, Anne-Marie followed up with her debut album this year.
As her own career takes off, she’s picked up some valuable lessons from watching Sheeran handle the fame game.
“I’ve learned to stay myself,” she says. “That’s one of the biggest things I’ve learned from him, because he is completely the same as he was before all the success. He made me realize that you don’t have to change to be a pop star.”
