Gould Rush

She's topped the BBC Sound Of 2010 Poll and nabbed the Critics' Choice Award at the Brits. Her debut album went straight to number one in the UK and she balances a notoriously strict work-out schedule with living it up with Jay-Z and GaGa. You'd think Ellie Goulding would be more concerned about looking cool.

"I absolutely was in love with the album Born To Do It," she beams, name-checking cringemeister Craig David's 2000 debut. "It was classic pop R"n'B!"
Even worse, the garage sensation-turned-dodgy-covers-artist's show was the first live performance Goulding ever attended. If only to throw her a bone, I butt in with my own embarrassing confessional – I'm still quite partial to those vibey Artful Dodger collaborations he recorded back in his micro-bearded days. This makes her chuckle.
"You're the first person to say "I love that album' as well! I loved his voice. He could do so much with it and he was amazing live. I remember being so happy to see him. My mum could only afford a really crap seat. Nevertheless I was elated! Of course, then hestarted working out and turned into a massive beefcake…"
But back to my hostess – the busiest girl in all of Dublin city. A flushed Goulding has been marched all over town today on the record promotion trail, the herbal tea she had earlier is having some unfortunate laxative side effects, and there's something funny going on with her salad. But Ms. Goulding doesn't have the time to feel crap.
"I'm pretty sweet," she chirps, seeming to surprise even herself. "I have to admit I'm very tired. It's been really crazy."
"I went out for dinner recently and literally I couldn't believe how normal it was. Even though I don't really live the party lifestyle, being out for dinner with my friend was such a relief for me. I had to do it for my own sanity. That and getting time off to go training or running."
A self-confessed hypochondriac, Goulding is obsessed with fitness, turning to her regime to help drown out her new home of the media jungle.
"It's the one thing that I can rely on," she says. "It's the one thing that I don't have to look good for, I don't have to say anything, I don't have to sing."
You can't blame the girl for wanting to get away from it all. The ex-drama student's debut album was easily one of the most hyped releases of the year.
"One of the first reviews I read wasn't very good," she hums. "The guy was criticising it for being a pop album and it upset me. I love pop music and I always knew my album was going to be in that direction so for people to then turn around and say "The hype has driven her to change', it's absolutely not true. It was really, really, really unfair because he didn't talk about any of the songs. He talked about the hype and not one lyric. I thought "What world are we coming to where music reviews don't even refer to any of the songs?'"
Lights was always going to bring about Marmite reactions from critics and fans, not least due to Goulding's distinctive voice, which falls somewhere between a British Lykke Li and a motorised Nina Persson.
"The first thing I remember is my mum listening to songs like "Let Me Be Your Fantasy' (Baby D, 1992) and "Ride On Time' (Black Box, 1989), all those kind of euphoric "90s tunes like (breaks into song) "I've got the power!' I loved all of that and I'd sing all of those hooks around the house. I didn't listen to anything classic. All I knew was dance and pop music really. I guess I had this unusual voice from listening to these unusual singers."
Goulding's own 'I've Got The Power!' moment took the form of a MySpace message to Frankmusik a few years back, asking the producer to sort out a lifeless acoustic ditty called "Wish I Stayed', which he promptly transformed into an electro pop masterpiece. When it came to recording Lights, remix maestro Starsmith picked up from where Frankmusik left off.
Though you'd never tell from the album, Goulding's head-spinning rise to fame triggered a series of panic attacks, from which she suffered all through recording.
A particularly bad spell even saw her admitted to hospital before Christmas. "It was awful," she remembers, "it was the worst thing I've ever experienced in my life. Basically you're experiencing the same symptoms you would if you were having a heart attack."
She has no need to worry. Already he's achieved an awful lot. She has hung out with Lady Gaga ("the weirdest moment of my life, pretty much"), received props from Cheryl Cole ("she texted the guy who signed me at Polydor saying that she was wrapped up in bed listening to my album!") and bagged a Brit Award, an experience she describes as "really bizarre."
"When someone said you're getting an award from Courtney Love, I was like "What? That is mental!' But Courtney Love is a fan and she was really happy about it and she went "Yay!' and everything. Afterwards she was really nice, really motherly and helpful and she was really genuinely pleased for me, which is rare, you know…"
Later that night, I go to see Ellie in Dublin's Academy. She prances athletically around the stage to a crowd of tipsy teens and middle-aged musos, who holler out declarations of love whenever a break in the music gives them the chance.
She seems to enjoy performing current single "Guns And Horses' most, particularly the scrappy "I'd do I all for you' refrain, a line she repeats while thrusting a finger at selected ecstatic members of the audience. I guess some things are worth risking your health for.