Our cover star, the multi award-winning British singer and songwriter Ellie Goulding has come a long way since bursting on the music scene with debut album ‘Lights’ in 2010.
That album went straight to number 1 in the Album Charts, as did her second ‘Halcyon’, fourth ‘Brightest Blue’ and her latest fifth album ‘Higher Than Heaven’ has just peaked at number 1 in the UK Album Charts too. (She got a respectable third place chart position with her third album ‘Delirium’ – not bad going from a council estate girl from the ‘burbs!)
To date, Ellie has sold over 15 million albums worldwide and released 47 top ten singles. Following her April 2023 album ‘Higher Than Heaven’ and Amazon Prime featured concert, ‘Monumental : Ellie Goulding at Kew Gardens’ airing to critical acclaim, Ellie is coming to our very own Kingston-Upon-Thames on May 4th to play at Pryzm Nightclub. Tickets are on sale from £119 if you want to catch her at the Surrey Award nominated venue. The ‘Burn’ songmaker is also planning a UK and European tour later this year starting in Glasgow on October 18th stopping in Newcastle, Manchester and Birmingham before hitting London on October 24th to play at the Roundhouse in Camden. Ticket prices start from only £52 too. Her concerts are supposed to be amazing and her voice “mesmerising”.
FROM RAGS TO RICHES
What many people don’t know about Ellie’s rise to the top is her tough upbringing. ‘Elena Jane Goulding’ was born on a council estate in Herefordshire in 1986 and admits she didn’t have the best childhood.
“We grew up in the smallest house with moth-eaten, flea-ridden furniture with holes in it handed down from my nana. But my mum had pride and we were always dressed nicely,” she says candidly and without self-pity. Her father walked out on her mum and three siblings when she was just five years old. Ellie has often spoken about her “horrible” stepdad – a tattooed lorry driver who her mother remarried.
“He wasn’t intelligent, he’d never suggest a book to read or a film to watch. There was nothing there,” she recalls.
However it was this upbringing that spurned a young Ellie to do so well. She started writing a diary at eight – which she attributes to being the skill that allowed her to grow into a successful songwriter. Plus she went to Kent University to study drama, allowing her to perfect her performing abilities.
While Goulding’s voice has been likened to Bjork and Cerys Matthews, she painstakingly admits that she never thought she had a career in music.
“I was never chosen in school plays as the lead singer and my mum used to tell me to be quiet when I sung!”
Despite this her passion for music came from her mother who introduced her to bands including Bob Dylan and The Beatles when she was very young. She also took up playing the guitar because of this.
Ellie’s lucky break came at the age of 18, when she performed at an open-mic talent show where she met her first manager, Jamie Lillywhite. After a tough few years playing the London gig circuit and setting up her own MySpace page, she contacted electro pop musician Frankmusik asking for help on an acoustic track she was penning.
With his guidance, ‘Wish I Stayed’ racked up 100,000 plays in three months and put the then 21-year-old Ellie on the map. As a result, she got a deal with Universal Music’s established Polydor label and quit college to concentrate on her singing career.
ELLIE’S LOVE LIFE
Unlike many other pop stars, Ellie has been fairly good at keeping her romantic life out of the media.
She has been linked to many pop stars including Ed Sheeran, Calvin Harris, Skillrex, McBusted’s Dougie Poynter and Niall from ‘One Direction’ as well as having a long-term relationship with US actor Jeremy Irvine.
There was also that famous rumoured fling with Prince Harry following the Audi Polo Challenge in 2014 – although nothing has ever been confirmed!
Ellie has been happily married to art dealer Caspar Jopling since 2019, having first met him in 2016 when they were introduced by Princess Eugenie. The couple (who are very low profile) welcomed their first child Arthur Ever Winter Jopling in April 2021.
OVERCOMING HER DEMONS
While it seems that Ellie, now 36 years old, has the world at her feet, her success has not come easily. She used to regularly suffer from bad panic attacks. “Some days I felt like I was having a heart attack and dying. I ended up in A&E a couple of times.”
Nowadays she wears a heart monitor to make sure her heart rate doesn’t run too high and has cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to keep her calm. She also regularly runs 5km a day to keep her both fit and sane. “Sometimes I’m emotionally all over the place,” Ellie admits, “but when I’m running I keep totally focused, its what our bodies are meant to do.”
Ellie Goulding also told ES Magazine that she used to hide parts of her face from the camera in her early career as she thought she was not pretty enough.
“At one time I was getting all this musical success but I wasn’t getting all the things that went with it, like magazine covers,” she said. “I was convinced for a long time I wasn’t aesthetically pleasing enough. I would have to angle my face to hide the side of my nose, or my chin,” she recalls.
Ellie admits that she had to force herself to let go and stop caring about what other people thought. “I put a different energy out there, then all the covers started to happen.” While Ellie is certainly not the first to suffer from the pressure of the media to look a certain way, she has been a great role model to other young women.
Notably after appearing on ‘X Factor’ in a sheer Julien Macdonald dress, Ellie was slammed on social media sites for her “fuller” body shape.
She took to Twitter to share her views on the matter: “They said my body was ‘too athletic’ Too athletic?! Isn’t it admirable that someone has worked so hard to look good and healthy.”
Good on you girl!
