Some things you don’t know about Ellie Goulding
Elena Jane Goulding was born on 30 December 1986[10] in Hereford and raised in Lyonshall, a small village near Kington, Herefordshire, the second of four children (she has a brother and two sisters).[11][12][13] Her father, Arthur Goulding, came from a family of undertakers, while her mother, Tracy (née Clark), used to work at a supermarket.[13] When she was 5, her parents separated; later she had a stepfather who was a lorry driver,[14] whom she considered "horrible".[15] At 9, she began playing the clarinet and at 14 began learning guitar. She attended Lady Hawkins' High School in Kington where she won the role of the Scarecrow in a school production of The Wizard of Oz. At 15, she started songwriting and while atHereford Sixth Form College entered a singing competition and won.[16]
After commencing drama, politics, and English courses at the University of Kent,[15] where she was exposed to electronic music, she was spotted by Jamie Lillywhite of Turn First Artists at a university talent contest.[17] After she successfully showcased for Turn First head Sarah Stennett, she was told to leave university and was set up in a house in West London.[17][18]Lillywhite became her manager and introduced her to the producer Starsmith who would become her chief collaborator and the primary producer of Lights.[19]
