Ellie Goulding
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British singer Ellie Goulding is returning to music with a new point of view on her artistry and her place in the world in general. She just released “Destiny,” her first solo single since her 2023 album Higher Than Heaven, and is setting the same for her next full-length project.
On the song, her ethereal vocals both soothe and soar in typical Goulding fashion. “I’m caving / Feeling the bite, ’cause you’re not leaving / Put it to right, ride of my life, I’m healing / Kissing the knife, falling,” she sings. “I got this feeling / The prize belongs to me / Don’t I hit the ceiling? / These lights can only mean / Destiny, destiny.”
The song was born out of a personal place for Goulding. “I wrote ‘Destiny’ a few years ago stuck between heartbreak and some sort of emancipation. To me, it felt like I was finally taking control of my sexuality and surrendering to destiny. Feeling free in knowing that the prize belonged to me in some way, even if that prize was just accepting my fate with a wine and a cigarette,” she wrote on social media. “The song focuses on a superficial but intense chemistry with someone that served a purpose… and how powerful it can feel in that moment even if it’s not love.”
Being able to have an intense and deep connection with someone, even if it wasn’t love in the traditional sense, helped Goulding reframe her view of herself. “[It] felt like a potent shift in the way I loved myself as a whole. Musically, I wanted it to reflect a necessary recklessness that comes with gaining power, over my sexuality, sensuality, and embracing the chaos of my life.”
Speaking to fans on Instagram ahead of “Destiny”’s release, Goulding admitted she felt a mixed bag of emotions taking center stage once again – not just on the single, but on her next project in general. “I’ve got this feeling that I haven’t had for years, which is this kind of excited nervousness, because I’m releasing a song that is my own song. No one’s on it; it’s not a collaboration. It’s just my song. And actually, the album is pretty much just me,” she said. “This is a really good feeling.”
“Recording this was like a catharsis. It made me feel so much better – like the prize was me all along,” she added of the song, calling it her “first feeling of straight-up escape and empowerment.” “The idea of adding the choir and strings at the end was for it to become a triumphant moment of freedom, like jumping off a cliff. To me, it sounds like surrender. It sounds like ‘Let it happen,’” she said. “That’s why it is called ‘Destiny.’ It sounds like what will be will be and accepting it.”
Details around Goulding’s next album are forthcoming.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/cmalone/2025/11/12/ellie-goulding-pursues-her-destiny-on-new-single/
