Ed Sheeran marked 12 years of hit single that changed the trajectory of his life.

The Sapphire hit singer opened up about how writing I See Fire for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug shaped him into the artist he is today.

He celebrated the achievement on with an Instagram reel of himself recording the song.

Sheeran captioned the post, “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 added.

The Grammy-winner continued, “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).”

He went on to gush about how much “honoured” he was “to be part of the movie.” Given that he was a “massive Peter and Fran fan, and such a huge Tolkien fan.”

Talking about the sudden change in his retinue that came with it, he added, “It so surreal for a 22-year-old who 4 years before was playing empty bars in UK. The song was my first proper European hit, and still today is the song lots of people were introduced to me on.”

Expressing his gratitude to Peter and Fran, he concluded the post saying, “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 x.”

Sheeran’s on-going +-=÷× Tour is currently headed to Villeneuve d’Ascq , France, and is set to conclude on 7 September 2025 in Düsseldorf, Germany.