Ellie Goulding
Jan 11, 2015
Elena Jane "Ellie" Goulding is an English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Lyonshall, Herefordshire. Her career began when she met record producer Starsmith and Frankmusik, and she was later spotted by Jamie Lillywhite, who later became her manager and A&R. After signing to Polydor Records in July 2009, Goulding released her debut extended play, An Introduction to Ellie Goulding, later that year.
In 2010, she became the second artist to both top the BBC's annual Sound of... poll and win the Critics' Choice Award at the Brit Awards in the same year. Goulding released her debut studio album, Lights, in 2010. The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and has sold over 850,000 copies in the UK. Her cover of Elton John's "Your Song" reached number two in the UK in December 2010 and on 29 April 2011 she performed the song at the wedding reception of Prince William and Catherine Middleton at Buckingham Palace. The album's title track, "Lights", was released in the US in March 2011, and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Goulding's second album Halcyon was released in October 2012, "Anything Could Happen" preceded the album as the lead single. Halcyon debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart, and, after 65 weeks, reached number one. Halcyon debuted at number nine on the Billboard 200 Chart, her first top ten debut in the United States. Halcyon Days, a repackaged edition of Halcyon, was released on 23 August 2013, it included new singles including "Burn", which became her first UK number-one single in the same month. At the 2014 BRIT Awards she received the award for Best British Female. By the end of 2013, she has sold an estimated 4 million albums and 15 million singles worldwide.
On January 5, 2014, Goulding premiered the music video for her song "Goodness Gracious" on her Vevo channel, later confirming that it would be her sixth single released from Halcyon Days. On January 22, 2014, Goulding confirmed through her Facebook page that she had contributed the song "Beating Heart" to the soundtrack for the film Divergent, based on the novel of the same name by Veronica Roth. On February 3, 2014, Goulding released a cover of the James Blake song "Life Round Here" featuring rapper Angel Haze through her SoundCloud page. On February 19, 2014, Goulding won Best British Female Solo Artist at the Brit Awards.
Ellie appears on the new Calvin Harris album, Motion, with a new song called "Outside". The song was released as the album's fifth single on October 20, 2014.