Ed Sheeran reveals Bieber's Love Yourself was meant for his new album, Divide

Image source, Getty Images

Ed Sheeran has revealed that he originally co-wrote Love Yourself for his new album, Divide.

The track became one of Justin Bieber's biggest hits, spending six weeks at number one in the UK.

"That was a song I had written for '梅'. It just wouldn't have made it," Ed Sheeran said in an American radio interview on Monday.

He said Justin's input had made the Grammy-nominated song "what it is".

Image source, Getty Images

"So going from a song that would have never been released to [being] the biggest song of last year - it just became Billboard's #1 of 2016 of the whole year, and nominated for Song of the Year at the Grammys - it just shows you that you shouldn't always write stuff off," he said.

The 25-year-old has just released two new singles, Castle On The Hill and Shape Of You.

Image caption, Ed co-hosted the Radio 1 Breakfast Show last week

Ed Sheeran also wrote Cold Water for Justin, Major Lazer, and M脴, but says at the time he had forgotten about it.

"Cold Water was a weird one because I didn't even know that song existed.

"It was a song I must've half-written somewhere at a time where I was writing a lot of songs," he told host Carson Daly.

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption, Sheeran co-wrote Bieber's Cold Water, which features Major Lazer and MO (pictured)

"And [Diplo] emailed and was like, 'Yo, Justin [Bieber] wants to hop on the Cold Water song. Is that cool?'

"And I'm just like, 'What are you talking about?'... And then the song came out and it was number one and I was like 'Oh, that song!' I remember doing it, but it was really, really slow.

"I remember hearing it and being like 'That kind of sounds like me. Oh wait, it was me.'"

The song spent five weeks at number one last year, ending Drake's 15-week run at the top of the chart with One Dance.

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