Ed Sheeran reveals the song that changed his life forever

Ed Sheeran celebrated a major milestone of his track I See Fire.

The song I See Fire, written for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, has officially surpassed one billion streams.

Celebrating the major milestone, the Sapphire hitmaker took to Instagram on Friday and posted a video clip of himself recording the song.

However, he penned a special message in the caption and expressed his gratitude towards fans.

Sheeran reminisced about how the song came to life more than a decade ago, writing, "12 years ago I was at a mates wedding in Ibiza, I woke up to an email from Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh saying can you come to NZ and watch an early cut of The Desolation of Smaug, and maybe write the end credits song. I was on the first plane there from that moment. Landed, saw the cut, wrote I see fire that day as soon as I’d seen it, and then spent the rest of the week producing it and recording bits."

He went on to reveal, "It was the first song I’d produced solely myself, written solely myself and played every instrument on it (except the cello ironically considering I can play that and can’t play violin but still played that)."

"I was so honoured to be part of the movie, such a massive Peter and Fran fan, and such a huge Tolkien fan, it felt like a dream being involved. I then got to do the press tour with all the actors which was so surreal for a 22 year old who 4 years before was playing empty bars in UK," the singer added.

"The song was my first proper European hit, and still today is the song lots of people were introduced to me on. It hit a billion streams this week, which made me reminisce about those moments in 2013 that I will never forget."

"Thank you Peter, Fran + Katie for giving me such amazing memories, and a song that has reached a billion people," Ed Sheeran concluded.