Ellie Goulding Biography

Elena Jane “Ellie” Goulding is a British singer and songwriter, known for her unique, high-pitched, slightly hoarse, voice. Her music provoked great hype from day one. A year after her debut, she won both BBC’s annual Sound of… and the Critics’ Choice Award. Her first studio album, Lights, went straight to number on in the UK charts. Ellie’s second album, Halcyon, started off as number two in charts but then also reached the top. Additionally, in 2015 her song Love Me Like You Do gained her a Grammy Award. 

Lights and Bright Lights

After learning to play the clarinet and the guitar, Ellie picked up songwriting and singing. She participated in some competitions and eventually was discovered by Lillywhite of Turn First Artists, who became her manager. Her debut single, Under the Sheets, was an independent production which only got her number 53 in UK charts but convinced BBC that is was a promising artist. Naturally, her album Lights (2010) conquered both English and Irish charts and sold over 1.6 million copies. After this success, Ellie re-released the album including 6 more tracks, under the name Bright Lights. In 2011 she was featured in Rolling Stone‘s annual hot list, at number five. Next off, she performed at the wedding reception of Prince William and Kate Middleton. She also performed at the White House during the National Christmas Tree lighting.

Halcyon and Halcyon Days

In 2012 Goulding and Calvin Harris released I Need Your Love, which was featured on both their following albums. Halcyon was released later that year and its lead single, Figure 8, instantly made its way into UK’s Top 40. 2013 came with the re-release of Halcyon, under the name Halcyon Days. She promoted this new edition with the song You My Everything, which appears in the Fire episodes of the popular British show Skins. Additionally, Goulding appeared on the soundtrack for the film The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. In 2014, she released another successful single, Goodness Gracious, and contributed to the soundtrack of Divergent with her song Bleeding Heart.

Furthermore, in 2015, she released Love Me Like You Do for the soundtrack of blockbuster Fifty Shades of Gray. Another extremely relevant release is the duet with Major Lazer, Powerful. Also in 2015, the artist appears in Taylor Swift’s music video for Bad Blood and, at the end of the year, released her latest album – Delirium – promoting it with the single Something In the Way You Move. After a moderate success with Still Falling For You, featured in Bridget Jones’s Baby, Ellie announced she needs some time off from music.

Photo credit: The Independent