Ellie Goulding is the sweet-voiced crooner cooking up hits from the other side of the Atlantic. And she's hitting the stage at the Fillmore Miami Beach on Wednesday, January 16. But what do you really know about her anyway?
Sure, you know all the lyrics to her hit song "Lights." Well, you know the chorus. You know she's British. You know she had a love thing with banger bro Skrillex. And you know she has a beautiful soprano voice and a thoughtful, nuanced delivery.
But in today's world of social connectivity and celebrity worship, that's, like, nothing! So before catching Ellie's intimate performance at the Fillmore, get to know the "Starry Eyed" singer-songwriter and her work a bit better. This is Ellie Goulding by the numbers.
See also:
-Ellie Goulding Breaks Up With Skrillex, Announces Trip to South Beach
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She was born December 30, 1986, in a small village called Lyonshall in Herefordshire. She's the second of four children. She learned to play guitar and started writing songs at 15. So you could say she's been writing for more than a decade!
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In the U.K., Goulding's home country, a single is classified as platinum each time it sells 600,000 units. And Ellie's megahit single "Lights" has gone platinum three times. She's a huge deal over there. Following Adele, she's the second artist ever to both top the BBC's annual Sound Of poll and win the Critic's Choice Award at the Brit Awards in the same year. Oh, and she sang at Prince William's wedding.
1,600,000
Goulding's debut, Lights, has sold 1.6 million copies worldwide since its official release on February 26, 2010. The album debuted at No. 1 on the U.K. Billboard charts and it was re-released in November of the same year with six additional tracks. She released her second album, Halcyon, last October.
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Her debut's title track wasn't released as a single in the U.S. until March 2011, and it was no overnight success. Though the song eventually topped the pop and on-demand charts, as well as reached No. 2 on the Hot 100, Ellie's "Lights" took 33 weeks to get there. That's one of the longest climbs to a peak position that the Billboard charts have ever seen.
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A few months before releasing what would be her biggest U.S. hit, EDM fans in America learned the name Ellie Goulding for reasons almost entirely unrelated to her music. She had snagged the arm of dubstep dynamo Sonny John "Skrillex" Moore. Unfortunately, though, their love wasn't destined to last. The distance between them and full-time touring schedules forced Ellie and Sonny to call it quits -- albeit on good terms. The radio-friendly relationship lasted only one year.
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On October 11, 2012, Goulding set out on her second world tour in support of Halcyon with a kickoff show in New York City. And ultimately, over the course of eight months, she will have made 53 stops across the U.S. and Europe. Her performance at the Fillmore will be the 14th show, but it's gonna be the first of 2013, so you know her voice should be rested and in good shape. Of Ellie's 40 remaining appearances, 12 concerts have already sold out!
$40
Thankfully, there are still some tickets for Goulding's Fillmore gig. And if you buy tix ahead of time, the total price tag comes to $40 via livenation.com. So you might as well snag a pair now. After all, as Ellie sings: "Anything Could Happen."
Ellie Goulding. Wednesday, January 16. Fillmore Miami Beach, 1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach. The show starts at 8:30 p.m. and tickets cost $28 plus fees via livenation.com. Call 305-673-7300 or visit fillmoremb.com.
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