Ed Sheeran has capped off a massively successful year by receiving an MBE from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace.

It’s been quite a 2017 for the Suffolk-raised singer-songwriter, headlining Glastonbury in June following the all-conquering chart success of his third studio album Divide, which was released back in March, and was named the most-streamed artist on Spotify of the year.

On Thursday (December 7th), Sheeran was honoured with an MBE medal for his services to music and charity.

Sporting a blue tie, long black jacket, light blue waistcoat and grey trousers outside the ceremony at Buckingham Palace afterwards, Sheeran spoke to reporters. He said that he hadn’t been approached by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to play a song at their wedding next year – but joked “Yeah, why not” when asked if he would if invited.

Ed SheeranEd Sheeran collected his MBE today at Buckingham Palace

When asked about the secret of his success, he remained modest. “I think it's persistence. I don't have a vast amount of talent compared to other people, I think talent is like 30% of it and persistence, drive and self-belief are the other ones, which I guess are all the same thing.”

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The 26 year old star also spoke about his late grandfather, Bill Sheeran, after he collected his MBE.

“Do you know what I love, my grandfather was a massive royalist, he had all the commemorative plates and stuff, and he died on this day four years ago, so it’s actually quite a nice full circle thing, I guess he’d be pretty proud,” he said.

Sheeran also said that Prince Charles was impressed when he told him he was playing a concert in America on Friday night, just a day after the investiture ceremony in London.

“He was asking me if I was still selling lots of records and I told him I've got a concert in New York tomorrow, and he was quite surprised I was flying after this.”

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