Our cover star, the multi award-winning singer and songwriter Ellie Goulding has come a long way since bursting on the music scene with debut album Lights in 2010.<\/p>\n
That album went straight to number 1 in the UK Album Charts and to date she has sold over five million albums worldwide with electro pop track \u2018Burn\u2019 residing at number 1 for 3 weeks in the singles chart. She is currently working on a new album and planning a world tour for 2015.<\/p>\n
RAGS TO RICHES<\/p>\n
What many people don\u2019t know about Ellie\u2019s rise to the top is her tough upbringing. \u2018Elena Jane Goulding\u2019 was born on a council estate in Herefordshire and admits she didn\u2019t have the best childhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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,\u201d she says candidly and without self-pity.<\/p>\n
Her father walked out on her mum and three siblings when she was just five years old. Ellie has often spoken about her \u201chorrible\u201d stepdad – a tattooed lorry driver who her mother remarried.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wasn\u2019t intelligent, he\u2019d never suggest a book to read or a film to watch. There was nothing there,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
While Goulding\u2019s voice has been likened to Bjork and Cerys Matthews, she painstakingly admits that she never thought she had a career in music.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was never chosen in school plays as the lead singer and my mum used to tell me to be quiet when I sung!\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Ellie\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
With his guidance, \u2018Wish I Stayed\u2019 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\u2019s established Polydor label and quit college to concentrate on her singing career.<\/p>\n
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OVERCOMING HER DEMONS<\/p>\n
While it seems that Ellie, now 27 years old, has the world at her feet, her success has not come easily. She used to regularly suffer from bad panic attacks. \u201cSome days I felt like I was having a heart attack and dying. I ended up in A&E a couple of times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nowadays she wears a heart monitor to make sure her heart rate doesn\u2019t 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. \u201cSometimes I\u2019m emotionally all over the place,\u201d Ellie admits, \u201cbut when I\u2019m running I keep totally focused, its what our bodies are meant to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ellie Goulding has also recently 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt one time I was getting all this musical success but I wasn\u2019t getting all the things that went with it, like magazine covers,\u201d she said. \u201cI was convinced for a long time I wasn\u2019t aesthetically pleasing enough. I would have to angle my face to hide the side of my nose, or my chin,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n
Ellie admits that she had to force herself to let go and stop caring about what other people thought. \u201cI put a different energy out there, then all the covers started to happen.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
Notably after appearing on X Factor last year in a sheer Julien Macdonald dress, Ellie was slammed on social media sites for her fuller body shape.<\/p>\n
She took to Twitter to share her views on the matter: \u201cThey said my body was \u2018too athletic\u2019 Too athletic?! Isn\u2019t it admirable that someone has worked so hard to look good and healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Good on you girl!<\/p>\n
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ELLIE\u2019S LOVE LIFE<\/p>\n
Unlike many other young pop singers, Ellie has been fairly good at keeping her romantic life out of the media.<\/p>\n
She has been linked to many pop stars including Ed Sheeran, Skillrex and Niall from One Direction as well as having a long-term relationship with US actor Jeremy Irvine.<\/p>\n
She is now in a happy relationship with McBusted\u2019s Dougie Poynter and has been since May of this year after getting friendly at Chiltern Firehouse. The duo are regularly papped out and about together holding hands and looking very much in love.<\/p>\n
But this is the only detail we are getting. Ellie has sworn off talking about her love life. \u201cI never talk about my love life anymore because it\u2019s always gone wrong when I talk about it in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n