Ellie Goulding: It takes a lot of work to be a star

New Delhi (IANS) – Ellie Goulding is a globally popular singer, who won two BRIT Awards and has been nominated for Grammy and Golden Globe awards in the past. The road to stardom has not been easy for the singer, who admits not always having a huge amount of confidence.

“I think I wanted to be a singer when I was 14. I don’t really remember much from then. I think I was always singing, always playing the guitar, writing music and imagining myself performing. But I didn’t have huge amount of confidence so that was something I had to build and work on. It wasn’t like I was born just to be a star. It takes a lot of work on yourself to eventually get used to that kind of attention and spotlight,” Ellie told IANS in an interview.

Looking back at her musical journey, which professionally began with the release of her debut album “Lights” 10 years ago, she shared: “I really cherish writing music for no one but myself, and not feeling any obligation to please anyone. In a sense, I was a poor student but I was also making music that I really loved, that I was very passionate about.”

“You know you can get lost a little bit along the way, and I think it’s kind of a journey where every single thing is amplified — especially when you end up being in the public eye, everything becomes a bit stranger. You are trying to be a performing artiste but also a writer. Everything is just made that bit bigger, and so it has definitely been a testing journey where I have had to find a balance between being humble and having confidence. It’s been a very colourful and magical journey but I feel I have come out of it really feeling grateful for the experiences, for my fans and just to be able to do what I love. I have a lot of gratitude for that,” added the “Love me like you do” hitmaker.

She is now back with a new album, “Brightest Blue”. This is her first album in five years, after 2015’s “Delirium”.

“After the last album, I spent a good three years touring and doing shows around the world. My third album did well and I was really occupied with that. By the time I was done with the tour, I was ready to take rest,” she said.

“I think we forget that an album comes with a cycle. I spent a few years touring with that and I did some collaborations which took up some time. I had moved to New York and lived a bit and realised that I didn’t have a life other than touring, and embraced it. I embraced being in one place,” shared the British singer.

On the personal front, she married Caspar Jopling last year. “My husband studies at Oxford (University), so I was able to move out there and spend so much time in nature, did so much walking, I got to run on the road because there were no cars, it was very liberating. The pollution seemed to have disappeared for a while,” she shared.

She was back on stage in August. She performed at London’s iconic Victoria and Albert Museum, but with no audience owing to Covid concerns.

Talking about her first show of 2020, she said: “I was excited. Weirdly, I didn’t show any nerves. I suppose part of being nervous is having an audience. There’s something about the energy of other people in the room.”

Her fans were not physically there to sing along and cheer for her, but they got to enjoy it as her show was livestreamed.

“It didn’t feel like a challenge, I just enjoyed it. I don’t want that to be the new normal, but I think it will have to be like that for a while. Now that we have done it once, it’s possible to do it over and over again. Hopefully, I will have an audience back at some point,” she said.

(Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at natalia.n @ians.in)