Harry Styles and Elton John back Ed Sheeran's call for more U.K. music education funding
Harry Styles and Elton John are among the stars who have backed Ed Sheeran's new campaign to get the U.K. goverment to spend more on music education.
Following the launch of his Ed Sheeran Foundation music charity, the Thinking Out Loud singer has written an open letter to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer requesting that the government commit £250 million ($323 million) to help the "next generation" of musicians.
The letter reads: "As an industry, we bring in £7.6bn into the UK economy, yet the next generation is not there to take the reins. Last year was the first in over 20 years without a UK global top 10 single or album in the charts."
Among the backers of the letter, which was published on Ed's Foundation's website were Harry, Elton, Coldplay, Stormzy, Eric Clapton, Robert Plant, Annie Lennox, Fred Again, and James Bay.
After criticising a decrease in music provision in state schools, the Suffolk-based singer-songwriter and his co-signatories added: "Artists and industry can't deliver on the world stage for the UK without schools, youth clubs and stages at home.
"We collectively ask for a £250m UK music education package this spring to repair decades of dismantling music ... Music in and out of school should be for all, not a few."
The letter, which also backed the pleas for help for live music that Myles Smith and Ezra Collective issued at the BRIT Awards, also set out a five point plan to "repair decades of dismantling music".
It included demands to train 1,000 more music teachers, back grassroots music spaces, fund music provision in schools in a similar way to sports, to provide 500 music industry apprenticeships, and to diversify the curriculum.