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Ellie GouldingGuns And HorsesStarry Eyed
Her musical style has been compared to that of Kate Nash, Lykke Li, Tracey Thorn, and Björk. Ellie was born and brought up in Hereford, Herefordshire, the second of four children.[5] She began playing the clarinet and writing songs at the age of nine, and at fourteen began learning guitar. She started songwriting at the age of fifteen and while in college she won a singing competition.[6] After commencing a drama course at the University of Kent,[7] where she was exposed to electronic music, she developed her sound with the help of Frankmusik on the track "Wish I Stayed", and Starsmith, who 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,[8][9] and moved to West London.[10] She is a keen runner, running six miles every
day, and in 2010 admitted plans to run a marathon.[5] 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,[11] and has announced that she will be doing
the same across Europe and the United States.[12] A website, EllieRuns.com,
was launched in support.[12] Goulding's keenness for exercise has
given her what is considered to be an impressively athletic physique.[13][14][15] Signed to Polydor Records in September 2009,[8]
she made her debut single. "Under the Sheets", which was released digitally in the United Kingdom on 15 November 2009,[16]
peaking outside the top 40.[17] In October 2009 she toured the
UK supporting Little Boots,[18] and appeared on Later... with Jools
Holland, performing "Under The Sheets" and "Guns and Horses".[19] "Wish I Stayed" was available as a free download as the UK iTunes Store's 'Single of the Week'
from 22–28 December 2009.[20] 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.[21] 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.[22] The album Lights was released in March 2010, reaching number one on the UK Albums Chart and number twelve on the Irish Albums Chart.[23][24][25] Its singles, "Starry Eyed", "Guns and Horses", and "The Writer" peaked at numbers 4, 26, and 19 respectively.[17] In August 2010, Ellie released a second extended play, Run Into the Light, a remixed version of 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.[11] 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.[26] 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.[27] The single became Goulding's highest-charting single to date, reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart.[28] The song also charted in some European countries in early 2011.[29] Goulding toured in support of Lights and supported
Passion Pit in March 2010 and John Mayer during his British tour
in May 2010.[30] During the summer she performed at a number of
festivals. On 29 May she performed at the Dot to Dot Festival in
Bristol.[11] She performed a set on 25 June at the 40th annual
Glastonbury Festival on the John Peel Stage.[31] Her third EP was
a live recording of part of her set at the iTunes Festival 2010.[32]
The whole set was later released as part of the iTunes version
of Bright Lights.[33] She made her T in the Park debut on 11 July.[34]
She played on the Nissan Juke Arena at the 2010 V Festival in late
August.[35] In September she was part of the line-up at Bestival
2010 on the Isle of Wight.[36] 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.[37] A track
from Lights, "Everytime You Go", was featured in the Vampire Diaries episode "Founder's Day", while "Your Biggest Mistake" appeared in an episode of The Inbetweeners.[38] She began a tour of the United
States and Canada in February 2011 to coincide with the release
of the American edition of Lights.[39] She will also play at Coachella.[5] In January 2011 it was announced that the title
track from Lights would serve as the second single from Bright
Lights.[40] In early 2011 she recorded an original song for the
film Life in a Day. Goulding was featured as number five artist
on Rolling Stone Magazine's hotlist in February 2011.[41] In February
2011 she returned to the BRIT Awards where she was nominated for
the Best British Female Solo Artist and the Best British Breakthrough
Act. Previously she had performed at the BRITs launch party where
the nominations were announced. Goulding will headline the 2011
Wakestock Festival in Wales, performing on 8 July.[42] In August
she will again perform at the V Festival.[43] Following the re-release
of Lights and the American launch of the album, Goulding said she
would soon begin work on a second studio album with an expected
release in September 2011.[44] 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.[45] She served
as the only live performer 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.[46]
She was introduced to Prince William by Tinie Tempah at a music
festival during the summer of 2010. Ellie performed, for the second
consecutive year, at Radio 1's Big Weekend on Saturday 14 May.[47]
On 28 July 2011, the American video version of Starry Eyed was
released on Youtube. The video reached over 1 million views in
just 3 days.[48] The video features Ellie wearing blue contacts
[49] In March 2011, Goulding told UK showbiz website Digital Spy that she is recording a currently untitled follow-up to Lights. When asked about the musical direction of the record, Ellie told the site: "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." The previous month, the site reported that she
hopes to release the album at some point in 2011, saying, "I'm not going to go away for ages. It'll be out this year or the start of next."[51] 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.[52] Her
song "Not Following" was used by Lena Meyer-Landrut on her debut album My Cassette Player.[53][54]
Goulding featured on the rapper Tinie Tempah's fifth official single "Wonderman" from his debut studio album Disc-Overy. Goulding is also featured on American
rap duo Chiddy Bang's song "Under the Sheets" on their mixtape Airswell. Frankmusik told Digital Spy he hoped to collaborate
with Goulding on his upcoming album.[55] The two previously worked
together on Ellie's track Wish I Stayed. Studio albums 2010: Lights / Bright Lights Extended plays 2009: An Introduction to Ellie Goulding [edit] Awards and nominations
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