Ellie Goulding was challenged to play a word association game, where she was given a word and she had only a few seconds to think of a song that uses it.
Ellie sat down with Elle for the bit and admitted that while she knows a good amount of songs, she is terrible with remembering their lyrics. “It’s surprising how many words I don’t know to any song,” she laughed.
She also provided a glimpse into her own music-making process after singing Coldplay‘s “Yellow” when asked to think of a song that pays tribute to the color.
“The inspiration behind my music, I guess, is a combination of my childhood — where I grew up — [and] the pathetic romantic in me,” she explained. She elaborated that she is inspired by “past relationships with my friends.”
“I’d say the biggest inspiration is love and relationships and heartbreak ’cause I just find it totally fascinating,” Ellie continued.
She also revealed, “I make music for myself, often, but the music that my record label likes is music for others, usually.”
While Ellie was challenged to find songs using the words “glamorous,” “alive,” “good” and more, she was thrown a few bones when asked to find songs using the words “burn” and “easy.”
She broke out into an impassioned performance of her 2013 single “Burn” as well as her newer hit “Easy Lover,” which she revealed she “wrote about five years ago” with Julia Michaels during a songwriting session.
When asked to associate a song using the word “lights,” she broke into a rendition of “All of the Lights” by Kanye West, Rihanna and Kid Cudi instead of her 2010 breakout hit.
Ellie scored 15 out of 15, tying in first with Olivia Rodrigo and Demi Lovato as word association champions.
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