Ellie Goulding scores #1 UK debut with ‘Brightest Blue’: “My fans have waited long enough”

Creative Direction: ISSTUDIO; Photographer: Louie Banks Ellie Goulding’s fans had waited five years for her new album Brightest Blue, so it’s no surprise that they’ve sent it to number one in her home country of England. The album was originally due t…

By ABC Audio on July 24, 2020

Creative Direction: ISSTUDIO; Photographer: Louie Banks

Ellie Goulding‘s fans had waited five years for her new album Brightest Blue, so it’s no surprise that they’ve sent it to number one in her home country of England.

The album was originally due to be released in early June, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  But as Ellie tells the U.K. publication Music Week, she’s glad it’s out now.

“I think it’s good to release an album in a time like this,” she says. “People just want to hear new music and at this point you just have to allow yourself to release something entirely for them and not think about how it can benefit you.”

She adds, “I am not going to hold it back because it’s not going to be a good time for me. My fans have waited long enough!”

Ellie actually wrote the album “a couple of years ago,” but, as she explains, “I feel it still has that magic there. I still listen to it and feel like it hasn’t dated. For me, it hasn’t really lost its meaning.

“I’m married now, but the album was so focused on this feeling of independence and strength in finding that kind of love for myself, so it still means a lot to me,” she notes.

Ironically, by debuting at number one, Brightest Blue knocked Legends Never Die, the posthumous album by late rapper Juice WRLD, out of the top of the chart. He and Ellie collaborated on her 2019 hit “Hate Me,” which is featured on Brightest Blue.

“He was a very sweet person, very talented,” Ellie says of Juice, who passed away in December of 2019 following a drug-induced seizure.

“God, it is always so sad when somebody dies just as their career is taking off,” she says.

By Andrea Dresdale
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