Ellie Goulding has praised fellow artist Lily Allen for her openness and emotional honesty, calling her “a poet”.
Following the release of the Smile singer’s deeply vulnerable album, West End Girl – which she insists is not a “revenge album” aimed at her ex-husband David Harbour – the Miracle hitmaker has applauded Lily for her willingness to speak openly about deeply personal situations in her life.
Asked if she’s heard the record, Ellie – who recently returned with her own vulnerable track Destiny – told NME: “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.”
She continued: “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.”
Ellie – who split from her ex-husband Caspar Jopling, the father of her four-year-old son Arthur, in early 2024 – added that she’s currently in a similar headspace, choosing openness over mystery in her own work.
She said: “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.”
Asked about the album in a recent conversation with Interview Magazine, Lily said: “I mean, I wrote this record in 10 days in December and I feel very differently about the whole situation now.
“We all go through breakups and it’s always f***** brutal. But I don’t think it’s that often that you feel inclined to write about it while you’re in it.”
She added: “That’s what’s fun about this record; it’s viscerally like going through the motions. At the time [of recording it], I was really trying to process things and that’s great in terms of the album, but I don’t feel confused or angry now. I don’t need revenge.”