HERE COMES ELLIE

Ellie Goulding is heading for her highest U.K. chart position since 2019 with her fifth album, Higher Than Heaven (Polydor/Interscope), due 4/7.

The Official Chart midweek update has Goulding’s newly arrived Calvin Harris collab, “Miracle” (Sony), at #3. It could be her highest position since she topped the chart with Christmas single “River” in 2019.

Heaven is Goulding’s second album since she joined the TaP Management roster. Co-founder/CEO Ben Mawson says to expect “the usual incredible songwriting” and “big pop” songs with personal themes.

Team Ellie naturally hopes to hit #1 (which would give the star her fourth U.K. chart-topper) leading into more single releases and a tour this year. In the U.S., Goulding is on the promo trail with the aim of reconnecting post-pandemic. She’s also become a TikTok convert and is seeing catalog spikes as a result.

TaP co-boss Ed Millett believes all this outreach is paying off by deepening Goulding’s appeal. “As well as driving people to the new music, it’s connecting her as a person with those big songs and not just allowing them to exist in isolation,” he says. “Particularly in the U.S., she never felt she quite got connected to her music as a personality. So she wants to show that she’s achieved so much and is continuing to do so this far into her career.”

Beyond the album, Goulding has projects in the pipeline that will span acting, the potential release of classical music and writing for film and TV. “As her career matures, so does she,” says Millett. “She wants to be a multi-hyphenate. It’s not satisfying enough creatively for her to be in the churn of an album every few years. She’s got all these different things she wants to explore. This, for her, feels like the time to take action on all of those.”