Edward James Drewett (born 1 April 1988) is a British singer and songwriter who is best known for his contributions and collaborations with acts such as
One Direction
One Direction, often shortened to 1D, were an English-Irish pop boy band formed in London in 2010. The group consisted of Niall Horan, Zayn Malik (until his departure in 2015), Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson. The group sold o ...
,
Little Mix
Little Mix are an English girl group that formed on the eighth series of ''The X Factor (British TV series), The X Factor.'' They are the first group and the only girl group to win the original UK series. The lineup consisted of Leigh-Anne Pin ...
,
Jonas Blue,
The Wanted
The Wanted are a British-Irish boy band formed in 2009, and originally consisted of members Max George, Siva Kaneswaran, Jay McGuiness, Tom Parker, and Nathan Sykes. The group signed a worldwide contract to Universal Music, Island Reco ...
,
Olly Murs
Oliver Stanley Murs (born 14 May 1984) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence after participating on the sixth series of the television talent show ''The X Factor'' in 2009, where he finished as runn ...
, and
SG Lewis
Samuel George Lewis (born 9 July 1994) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. He is mostly known for collaborating with many artists from Tove Lo, Robyn, Dua Lipa, Nelly Furtado, Mabel, Victoria Monét, Lucky Daye, J ...
.
Early life
Drewett left school at age 16 and went to a performing arts college in
Charlton, south-east
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. He proceeded to attend vocal college
BIMM in west London the following year.
Career
2009–present: Songwriting
In 2009 he signed with leading worldwide publishers
Warner/Chappell Music. Later that year he signed his first record deal with
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...
and was featured on
Professor Green's hit single
"I Need You Tonight", which charted at number three. In 2010 Drewett had his first number-one hit single as a writer. The song
"All Time Low" for UK band
The Wanted
The Wanted are a British-Irish boy band formed in 2009, and originally consisted of members Max George, Siva Kaneswaran, Jay McGuiness, Tom Parker, and Nathan Sykes. The group signed a worldwide contract to Universal Music, Island Reco ...
topped the UK charts in July that year. "
Lightning
Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on ...
" and the multi-platinum hit "
Glad You Came
"Glad You Came", also known as "I'm Glad You Came", is a song by British-Irish boy band the Wanted, released on 24 May 2011 as the second single from their second studio album, '' Battleground''. The song was written by Steve Mac, Wayne Hecto ...
" followed in 2011. "Glad You Came" was by far the biggest with over 4 million in worldwide sales. It was Drewett's second UK number 1 hit single. The song also hit massive success in the US achieving a Top 3 hit single on the
Billboard Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), ...
a Number 1 on US iTunes Chart and number 1 on
Billboard's Pop Songs chart based on
Nielsen BDS-based radio airplay.
In 2012 Drewett co-wrote three songs which featured on
Olly Murs' double platinum album
Right Place Right Time. The tracks were "What a Buzz", "The One", and the 2013 UK Top 5 single for Olly, "
Dear Darlin'". Dear Darlin was voted by Capital FM listeners as their favourite
Olly Murs
Oliver Stanley Murs (born 14 May 1984) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence after participating on the sixth series of the television talent show ''The X Factor'' in 2009, where he finished as runn ...
song.
In 2013/14/15 Drewett lent his talents to writing for
X-Factor
''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–200 ...
winners
One Direction
One Direction, often shortened to 1D, were an English-Irish pop boy band formed in London in 2010. The group consisted of Niall Horan, Zayn Malik (until his departure in 2015), Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson. The group sold o ...
. The first song was "
Best Song Ever", the lead single from their 2013 album, ''
Midnight Memories'' and the title song for their movie, ''
This Is Us
''This Is Us'' is an American drama television series created by Dan Fogelman that aired on NBC from September 20, 2016, to May 24, 2022. The series follows the lives and families of two parents and their three children in several different ti ...
''. He co-wrote two other hit singles for the British group, "
Steal My Girl
"Steal My Girl" is a song written and recorded by English-Irish boy band One Direction. It is the lead single from their fourth studio album ''Four (One Direction album), Four'' (2014). It was released worldwide on 29 September 2014. The single w ...
" and their most recent single, "
History
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
".
In 2014 Drewett appeared as a contestant on the 8th series of
Britain's Got Talent, controversially billed by the show as an "unknown songwriter", despite his extensive previous successes and involvement with
One Direction
One Direction, often shortened to 1D, were an English-Irish pop boy band formed in London in 2010. The group consisted of Niall Horan, Zayn Malik (until his departure in 2015), Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson. The group sold o ...
.
In 2015 Ed Drewett hit another chart high with the release of Little Mix's "
Black Magic
Black magic (Middle English: ''nigromancy''), sometimes dark magic, traditionally refers to the use of Magic (paranormal), magic or supernatural powers for evil and selfish purposes.
The links and interaction between black magic and religi ...
". The song topped the UK Charts for three consecutive weeks, gained a BRIT Nomination for Best Single, and achieved huge critical acclaim with
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
naming the song #34 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time. On 13 November 2015 the song was certified Platinum in the UK and It became the first song by a girl group to be certified Platinum in the United Kingdom since "
Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)" by
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...
and
The Pussycat Dolls
The Pussycat Dolls were an American girl group and dance ensemble, founded in Los Angeles, California, by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995 as a neo-burlesque troupe. At the suggestion of Jimmy Iovine, Antin decided to take the troupe mainstrea ...
featuring
Nicole Scherzinger
Nicole Prascovia Elikolani Scherzinger ( ; ; born June 29, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and television personality. She was a member of the girl group and dance ensemble the Pussycat Dolls between 2003 and 2010. With ...
in 2009.
In 2016 he had songwriting collaborations with
Craig David
Craig Ashley David (born 5 May 1981) is an English singer. He rose to fame in 1999, featuring on the single " Re-Rewind" by Artful Dodger. David's debut studio album, '' Born to Do It'', was released in 2000, to great commercial success. In to ...
,
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the "Princess of Pop", she has sold over 150 million records worldwide, making her one of the world's best-selling music artists. Cultural impact of Brit ...
,
Mike and The Mechanics
Mike and the Mechanics (stylised as Mike + The Mechanics) are a British rock supergroup formed in Dover in 1985 by Mike Rutherford, initially as a side project during a hiatus period for his other group Genesis. The band are known for the hit ...
, and
Louisa Johnson on her single "
So Good".
Drewett's most recent chart endeavour was in 2017 when he co-wrote the Platinum selling single
"Mama" by British DJ and record producer
Jonas Blue, featuring Australian singer
William Singe. As of October 2017 the single has over 308 million views on YouTube and has spent 22 weeks on the UK chart peaking at No.4.
In 2017 Ed Drewett was featured as a writer on
Niall Horan
Niall James Horan ( ; born 13 September 1993) is an Irish singer-songwriter. He rose to prominence as a member of the boy band One Direction, formed in 2010 on the singing competition ''The X Factor (British TV series), The X Factor''. The gr ...
's Top 3 album
Flicker with the track 'On My Own'.
2018 started strong for Drewett with two cuts on the Number 2
Craig David
Craig Ashley David (born 5 May 1981) is an English singer. He rose to fame in 1999, featuring on the single " Re-Rewind" by Artful Dodger. David's debut studio album, '' Born to Do It'', was released in 2000, to great commercial success. In to ...
album
The Time Is Now. Jonas Blue then released the massive "
Rise" co-written by Drewett and
ROMANS.
In 2020, Drewett co-wrote the UK's
Eurovision Song Contest 2020 entry
My Last Breath performed by the singer
James Newman.
Discography
Solo albums/EPs
Solo singles
As featured artist
Singles as songwriter
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drewett, Ed
1988 births
Living people
Musicians from Essex
English male singers
English male songwriters
21st-century English singers
21st-century British male singers