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.
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 ‘Burn’ 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.
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 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.
OVERCOMING HER DEMONS
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. “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 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.
“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 last year 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!
ELLIE’S LOVE LIFE
Unlike many other young pop singers, 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, Skillrex and Niall from One Direction as well as having a long-term relationship with US actor Jeremy Irvine.
She is now in a happy relationship with McBusted’s 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.
But this is the only detail we are getting. Ellie has sworn off talking about her love life. “I never talk about my love life anymore because it’s always gone wrong when I talk about it in the past.”
Ellie is performing at the FIB Benicassim Festival this month (July 17th – 20th)
Visit www.fiberfib.com for more details.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
2009 – Signed to Universal Music’s Polydor Records after being spotted by renowned A&R manager Jamie Lillywhite
2010 – Her first album ‘Lights’ debuted at number 1 on the UK album chart. She won the BBC’s annual Inflential Sound of poll and the Critics Choice Awards at the Brit Awards
2011 – Performed Elton John’s “Your Song” at the wedding reception of Prince William and Kate Middleton
2012 – Ellie’s second album Halcyon Lights was released in the US in October
2013 – Single ‘Burn’ reaches the number 1 spot and stays for three consecutive weeks
2014- Ellie win’s her second Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist
