Ellie Goulding talks tackling heartbreak with empowering single ‘Destiny’: “I don’t have any urge to be mysterious at the moment”

Ellie Goulding has spoken to NME about her liberating new single ‘Destiny’, finding inspiration in a dark period, plans for a classical album, a potential career in the film industry, and her respect for Lily Allen.

• READ MORE: Ellie Goulding – ‘Higher Than Heaven’ review: playful antidote to personal-driven pop

Released today (Friday November 14), the new track marks the first solo material from Goulding since 2023’s album ‘Higher Than Heaven‘. While that record saw her take on a more escapist approach, her new material sees her return back-to-basics and more personal.

Inspired by the heartbreak and lingering questions that arose after her divorce, the new track is one where British songwriter leans into her vulnerability, and starts reclaim a sense of joy that previously laid dormant.

“I first heard this track when I had recently separated from my husband. This was at a really turbulent time for me because I was trying to navigate what felt like a separation of all separations,” Goulding tells NME. “It was a marriage, not just a relationship. I didn’t know what else to do other than make music.

“So I saw Jack Rochon, who was producing mostly trap music at the time, playing guitar on Instagram in such a beautiful way that I was immediately fixated. So I DM’ed him saying I wanted to work with him, and we met up that same day to start the journey.”

The end product is the introspective and euphoric ‘Destiny’, where Goulding gradually starts to embrace the glimmers of hope that arise after a period of darkness. The singer also described it as the beginning of a new chapter, in which she will be continuing to strip back the bells-and-whistles in her music, and put forward some of her most vulnerable lyrics yet.

Check out the full interview with Goulding below, where she also told us about hopes to work on film scores, continuing work on her long-mooted classical album, the resurgence of some of her older songs, and how she felt inspired by Lily Allen’s new music.

NME: Hi Ellie, tell us about ‘Destiny’. It feels like a song really rooted in self-acceptance and liberation…

Ellie Goulding: “Before now, I’d been making slightly more escapist music, in the hopes that if I didn’t write about things that were too personal, it might help me escape into this other world. I realised that wasn’t serving me, though. It wasn’t helping me with anything.

“This was the first time I’d heard a track in this era of my life that seemed to just spell out acceptance and surrender of what had happened, rather than indulging myself in a really sad song that would’ve just continued to break me. This song felt like I could really accept things. It felt like it was making way for something better, and it made me realise that some things are destined for you. I’m really grateful that that song came around when it did. It felt like a moment of escape and surrender that I needed at the time.”

Has being back in the studio helped you come out if the other side stronger?

“Yeah, it doesn’t matter how strong a character you have, when it comes to separating from your husband, you can never be strong enough for that. It’s like a grieving process because you’ve lost not just the person, but the life that was projected for you.

“It was a long process, and it felt really triumphant to start waking up in the morning and, little by little, starting to feel it less. It’s never gone away, and only time will tell if it ever will… but it’s been a process of everyday feeling a little bit better. That to me was such a victory. To be able to channel things like that into poetry and lyrics, and then put it into songs like ‘Destiny’, it just felt like a triumph. I felt proud that I’d taken these steps to feel myself again. We’re never gonna escape pain; we have to use it for good and make it into something.”

You said this marks the start of a new chapter. What can we expect from this era?

“I’ve just gone back to my guitar and written songs with Jack and with a couple of others. I’ve been to Nashville for the first time to write, and I was in LA to do some old-school writing sessions. I wanted to do that because I can get really carried away in the production of things. I really love electronic music, so I can get really particular about sounds, but I wanted to switch it up for this. It’s really expansive and clever, but for the most part, it’s just really nice to play these songs. It feels like the version of me that had nothing to lose.

“Back before I signed a record deal, I was just writing songs, letting them come out naturally and not thinking too much. To be honest though, I still really have nothing to lose because I’m always doing projects that indulge me, like classical music, electronic, and dance, plus I still get to write pop songs that are really appealing to me. This is probably the most honest I’ve been in my lyrics. I don’t have anyone to answer to. In certain situations, you’re trying to please someone, but for the first time ever, I don’t feel like I have to do that. I’m just making music that I love.

“It’s a really liberating feeling I have at the moment. The songs aren’t too on the nose or mainstream, but they’re also not too unusual. It’s all just really freeing and different.”

Last year you revealed that you were working on an album of classical music. How that coming along?

“Well, I’ve been really inspired [to go back to it] lately because my boyfriend loves classical music, and I was amazed that he was introducing me to songs that I didn’t know. I thought I was so on top of like contemporary classical music until then.

“It’s funny, I actually texted my collaborator Max [Martin, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd] a couple of days ago and said that we need to finish it. I played it to a few people I know, and I played it to the classical label at Universal, and everyone loves it. But I guess I got too stuck into this album first. There are classical elements on this record coming up. For instance we have little orchestral elements and a choir, so it’s still definitely featured, but I do need to commit to the other album as well. It would it be a dream to like compose for films one day, so I should just commit to it…”

Speaking of music on the big screen, how did it feel to see your song ‘Anything Could Happen’ was not only in Nobody Wants This, but also had the episode named after it? 

“It was also used at the same time in The Summer I Turned Pretty! It feels like my songs have a new life right now, and it’s really fun to see. I’m still gaining new fans from very old songs I thought were like done and dusted. They just keep on coming back. Now I’ll have to play that song again live because people wanna hear it, and I’ll have to play ‘Hate Me’ with Juice WRLD again live.

“I tucked ‘Lights’ away for a while for technical reasons and because it’s so hard to sing live. When I got to that part in the set, I’d always be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I really wrote the hardest song to sing… maybe people just won’t notice if I don’t sing that one anymore’. But people did notice and they were asking me why! It’s going to be interesting like figuring out the setlists next year, because I’ll need to showcase the new music along with some of the old.”

Is that a film or a series that you would like to see your music in?

“It really depends what it is. I’ve been watching far too much serial killer stuff, but that would be questionable. I watched Die My Love the other day in the cinema — actually Lily Allen was randomly there watching it as well — and that style of film really appeals to me. I’d like my music to be used in something that. Ideally though, I’d like it more to compose new music for a film like that.”

Since you mentioned Lily Allen, tell us, have you checked out her new album, ‘West End Girl‘?

“Yes, and I think it’s great. I really love the honesty of it, and I think that it’s really important that female artists today can be completely open about their lives. There have been many songs by male artists that I remember from when I was younger that touched on things in their lives. Talking about how they had been slighted by women and scorned by women, so I really love this era right now of total transparency, because it’s what people want to hear.

“There’s probably 50 per cent of people who are going through breakups and divorces and separations, and it’s never black and white. It’s never straightforward. There’s so much nuance, so I love that artists like Lily can have that chance to just put it out there. She’s a poet.

“I think we’re very different as artists, but we came up at the same time, so I’ve always had a lot of respect for her and her honesty. I can relate to her right now in the sense that I don’t have any urge to be mysterious at the moment. I have an urge to talk about my life, and I want people to relate. I want to feel like there’s some kind of camaraderie with women who are going through it.”

Do you feel an expectation or responsibility? to put yourself out there?

“I think fans grow close to you as an artist if you are just authentic in what you do. If you want to sing about going for a walk, but you really love the walk and you sing about it with every fibre of your being, fans can see that, and that makes it a good piece of music.

“If you sing about the fact that you’ve been fucked over, fans will get with you. If you sing about wanting to just go and get drunk, because that is genuinely you want it to be about, fans will appreciate that. It sounds really rudimentary, but I think if you are singing exactly about what you want to sing about and you’re doing it the way you want to do it, that is really obvious to fans. Listeners aren’t stupid; they know when you’re doing something inauthentic.

“I think my fans knew that with ‘Higher Than Heaven’  – because, to me, it sounds like me doing an AI album. When I listen to it back, I’m like, ‘This just doesn’t sound like me… but, but for whatever reason, I needed to do that at that time’. I remember saying it was my least personal record. Now though, I can say for sure that this new album is very much the antithesis of that.”

Ellie Goulding’s new single ‘Destiny’ is out now, and more details about her upcoming album are expected in the coming months.

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