Ellie Goulding
Ellie Goulding | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Elena Jane Goulding |
| Born | 30 December 1986 Hereford, Herefordshire, England |
| Origin | London, England |
| Genres | Pop |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist, drummer |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, piano, drums, clarinet, mandolin, tambourine |
| Years active | 2007–present |
| Labels | Neon Gold, Polydor, Cherrytree, Interscope |
| Website | elliegoulding |
Elena Jane Goulding (born 30 December 1986),[1] known professionally as Ellie Goulding, is an English singer-songwriter. 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, following Adele's win of both in 2008. After signing to Polydor Records in 2009, she released her first EP in 2009, An Introduction to Ellie Goulding.
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.[2] 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 Kate Middleton at Buckingham Palace.[3] The album's title track, "Lights", was released in the US in March 2011, reaching number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and is certified platinum by the RIAA.[4][5]
Goulding has a soprano vocal range[6] and her musical style has been compared to that of Kate Nash, Meiko, Lykke Li and Tracey Thorn.[7]
Background and personal life
Goulding was born and brought up in Kington, a small town near Hereford, Herefordshire – the second of four children (a brother and 2 sisters)[8] into a British family.[9][10] She began playing the clarinet at the age of nine, and at 14 began learning guitar. She attended Lady Hawkins' School in Kington, where she won a main part in a school production, the Wizard Of Oz, as the scarecrow. She started songwriting at the age of 15 and while in college she won a singing competition.[11]
After commencing a drama course, politics course, and an English course at the University of Kent,[12] where she was exposed to electronic music, she developed her sound on the track "Wish I Stayed" with the help of Starsmith and Frankmusik. Starsmith went on to become her chief collaborator and primary producer of Lights. After two years at Kent, she was advised to take a gap year to pursue singing,[13][14] and moved to West London.[15]
She is a keen runner, running six miles every day, and in 2010 announced plans to run a marathon.[10] In support of her second EP, Run Into the Light, she invited a small number of fans through her Facebook pages, to run with her in seven different cities on her UK tour,[16] and has announced that she will be doing the same across Europe and the United States. Goulding is considered to have an impressively athletic physique.[17][18][19]
She is allegedly in a relationship with American star producer and DJ Sonny Moore (Skrillex). She is travelling along with Sonny on his South American Tour in 2012.[20]
Music career
Early career
Signed to Polydor Records in September 2009,[13] Goulding's debut single, "Under the Sheets", was released digitally in the United Kingdom on 15 November 2009,[21] peaking at number fifty-three on the UK Singles Chart.[22] In October 2009 she toured the UK supporting Little Boots,[23] and appeared on Later... with Jools Holland, performing "Under the Sheets" and "Guns and Horses".[24] "Wish I Stayed" was available as a free download as the Single of the Week on iTunes Store UK from 22–28 December 2009.[25]
2009–11: Lights and Bright Lights
Before the release of her debut studio album, Goulding won the BBC Sound of 2010 poll, which showcases the critics, broadcasters and music industry insiders' top choices for rising stars and artists for the coming year.[26] She also won the Critics' Choice Award at the 2010 BRIT Awards, which prize made her the second artist to win both in the same year.[27]
Goulding's debut album Lights was released in March 2010, reaching number one on the UK Albums Chart and number six on the Irish Albums Chart.[28][29][30] Its singles, "Starry Eyed", "Guns and Horses" and "The Writer" peaked at numbers 4, 26, and 19 respectively.[22] The album has sold over 650,000 copies in the UK as of April 2012.[31] In August 2010, Goulding released a second EP, Run Into the Light, containing remixes of songs from Lights. The album was supported by Nike and was released through Polydor as a running soundtrack in an effort to get Goulding's music taken up by the national running subculture.[16]
In November 2010, Lights was re-released as Bright Lights, with six new tracks added. It was originally announced that the lead single from Bright Lights would be the new edit of the title track with a release scheduled for 1 November 2010.[32] Yet this was scrapped to allow her cover of Elton John's "Your Song" to be released in conjunction with the John Lewis Christmas 2010 advertising campaign in the UK.[33] The single became Goulding's highest-charting single to date, reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart.[22] The song also charted in some European countries in early 2011.[34]
Goulding toured in support of Lights and supported Passion Pit in March 2010 and John Mayall during his British tour in May 2010.[35] During the summer she performed at a number of festivals. On 29 May she performed at the Dot to Dot Festival in Bristol.[16] She performed a set on 25 June at the Glastonbury Festival 2010 on the John Peel Stage.[36] Her third EP was a live recording of part of her set at the iTunes Festival 2010.[37] The whole set was ultimately included as bonus content on the iTunes version of Bright Lights.[38] She made her T in the Park debut on 11 July.[39] She played on the Nissan Juke Arena at the 2010 V Festival in late August.[40] In September she was part of the line-up at Bestival 2010 on the Isle of Wight.[41] In support of the album in Europe she performed on the first day of Pukkelpop in Belgium, at the Open'er Festival in Poland and at Benicàssim in Spain.[42] A track from Lights, "Every Time You Go", was featured in the Vampire Diaries episode "Founder's Day", "Your Biggest Mistake" appeared in an episode of The Inbetweeners.[43] and "Believe Me" appeared in an episode of 90210. She began a tour of the United States and Canada in February 2011 to coincide with the release of the American edition of Lights.[44] In August/September 2010 the singer was an opening act on Irish alternative rock band U2's U2 360 Tour in Munich, Germany, Vienna, Austria, and Zurich, Switzerland. [citation needed]
In January 2011 it was announced that the title track from Lights would serve as the second single from Bright Lights.[45] In early 2011 she recorded an original song for the film Life in a Day. Goulding was placed at number five on Rolling Stone's annual hot list in February 2011.[46] In February 2011 she returned to the BRIT Awards where she was nominated for Best British Female and Best British Breakthrough Act, but lost out to Laura Marling and Tinie Tempah, respectively.[47] Previously she had performed at the BRITs launch party where the nominations were announced.
She also played live at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2011.[10] Goulding made her American television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live on 7 April 2011 performing "Starry Eyed". She appeared as the musical guest on the 700th episode of the Saturday Night Live, broadcast 7 May 2011 and hosted by Tina Fey.[48][49] She served as one of many live performers at the wedding reception of Prince William and Kate Middleton on 29 April 2011 singing her rendition of "Your Song" for the couple's first dance as well as her hits "The Writer" and "Starry Eyed" and several of William and Kate's personal favourites.[50] She was introduced to Prince William by Tinie Tempah at a music festival during the summer of 2010. She said: "It was an amazing honour to be asked by Kate and William to perform at their party. The atmosphere was incredible and it is a night I will never forget."[3] Goulding performed, for the second consecutive year, at Radio 1's Big Weekend on Saturday 14 May.[51]
Goulding headlined the 2011 Wakestock Festival in Wales, performing on 8 July.[52] In August she, again, performed at V Festival for her second year in a row.[53] Following the re-release of Lights and the American release of the album, Goulding said she would soon begin work on a second studio album with an expected release in September 2011.[54]
On 6 August 2011, Goulding performed at Lollapalooza in Chicago.[55] Goulding performed at the annual Nobel Peace Prize Concert on 11 December 2011 in Oslo, Norway, where she also served on a panel discussion with Amy Lee of Evanescence and Janelle Monáe.[56] On 1 December 2011, Goulding performed at the White House during the National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony, alongside the likes of Big Time Rush and will.i.am.[57] On 18 January 2012, Goulding performed "Lights" on Late Show with David Letterman.[58]
2011–present: Second studio album
In February 2011, Goulding told the Daily Star that she had plans to release a follow-up to Lights sometime in 2012, commenting, "I'm not going to go away for ages. It'll be out this year or the start of next."[59] The following month, when asked about the album's musical direction in an interview with gossip website Dean Piper's World, Goulding stated, "It's started to sound very dark and very weird. This album is going to be even more emotional [...] I wanted to make it so there is hope. I want to make an effect whether it's happy or sad."[60] In April 2012, Goulding stated that she hoped the album would be released in October 2012.[31] That same month, her single "Lights" was certified platinum in the United States by the RIAA.[61] On the 10th July 2012 Ellie released a free track on her soundcloud which features Tinie Tempah, she announced the song "Hanging On" as her new direction.
Work with other artists
Goulding co-wrote "Love Me 'Cause You Want To" for Gabriella Cilmi's second album, Ten, and three songs, "Remake Me + You", "Notice" and "Jumping Into Rivers", for Diana Vickers's debut album, Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree.[62] Her song "Not Following" was used by German singer Lena on her debut album My Cassette Player.[63] Goulding was featured on rapper Tinie Tempah's single "Wonderman" from his debut studio album Disc-Overy. Goulding's "Under the Sheets" was also remixed by American rap duo Chiddy Bang, featured on their 2010 mixtape Air Swell, and by DJ Frenzy (F^K Y3AH! Breaks Mix). Frankmusik, who produced Goulding's song "Wish I Stayed", told Digital Spy he hoped to collaborate with her on his second album, Do It in the AM.[64] "Lights" was remixed by Bassnectar, which appears on his 2011 album Divergent Spectrum.
On 19 September 2011, it was announced that Goulding would open for Katy Perry on her "California Dreams Tour", replacing Jessie J due to a foot injury.[65][66]
On 14 December 2011, Mika announced that Goulding had involvement in his upcoming album The Origin of Love.[67]
Goulding collaborated with American Dubstep artist and producer Skrillex on a song titled "Summit", included on his 2011 EP Bangarang. She is now travelling with Skrillex on his tour in South America called "The Mothership Tour". She is there performing as a side act in the song released in the previous year called "Summit" of the EP "Bangarang" as well as on a few unreleased songs which are reported to very likely being featured on Skrillex's first studio album with a working title of "Voltage".
Discography
- Lights (2010)
- TBA (2012)
Tours
- Use dmy dates from November 2011
- 1986 births
- Alumni of the University of Kent
- Brit Award winners
- British indie pop musicians
- English electronic musicians
- English female guitarists
- English female singers
- English singer-songwriters
- English sopranos
- English vegetarians
- Folktronica
- Interscope Records artists
- Living people
- Musicians from Herefordshire
- People from Hereford
- Polydor Records artists
- Synthpop musicians