Ellie Goulding

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Ellie Goulding is an English singer-songwriter, born in 1986 in Hereford and raised in the village of Lyonshall in Herefordshire, in a poor family. She played the clarinet from the age of nine, learned the guitar at fourteen and was already writing songs at fifteen. In 2009 she was discovered by the manager Jamie Lillywhite and signed to Polydor Records. Her first single Under the Sheets was released through the independent label Neon Gold, and in December the EP An Introduction to Ellie Goulding followed.

Music and breakthrough

Her debut album Lights from 2010 went to the top of the British album chart, with three successful singles: a cover of Elton John's Your Song, Starry Eyed and Lights. Halcyon from 2012 began with the single Anything Could Happen, and the reissue Halcyon Days of 2013 brought Burn, her first number one in England. Delirium followed in 2015, Brightest Blue in 2020 and Higher Than Heaven in 2023. Between 2016 and 2020 she took a break because of an anxiety disorder and press attention. She won two Brit Awards and is also active in the environmental movement.

Influence

Goulding combines a light, almost quivering voice with electronic pop music and dance beats. She brings together the sound of acoustic singer-songwriters and dance-floor production, and so fits into the wave of British pop of the 2010s, in which electronics and folk ran into one another.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 2010Lights
• 2012Halcyon
• 2015Delirium
• 2020Brightest Blue
• 2023Higher Than Heaven
• 2026I Know Too Much