New Year Honours 2026: Singer Ellie Goulding made MBE for services to biodiversity and the climate
Singer Ellie Goulding has been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to biodiversity and the climate.
The chart-topping pop star, who was born in Hereford and went to school in Kington, is a global environmental ambassador for the UN and has now been recognised in the New Year Honours list.
Born Elena Jane Goulding on December 30 1986, she played clarinet and guitar as a child and developed her passion for music as a young adult, setting up a MySpace account to get in touch with music producers.
Aged just 23, she won the Critics’ Choice Brit Award and came top of the BBC’s influential Sound Of 2010 poll.
Her debut album, Lights, which contained chart-topping hit Starry Eyed, was released the same year and soared straight to number one in the UK albums chart.
Her other UK number one albums are Halcyon (2012), Brightest Blue (2020) and Higher Than Heaven (2023).
The singer, who turns 39 on Tuesday, has also had four number one singles and collaborated with names such as rapper Tinie Tempah, Scottish DJ Calvin Harris and electronic group Major Lazer.
Among her number ones is a cover of Joni Mitchell’s River, which topped the charts in the first week of 2020 and featured a music video that highlighted environmentalism.
The video shows a group making a zero-waste Christmas tree constructed from salvaged beach litter and recycled objects that was later donated to a school in north London.
A decade earlier, Goulding had another festive hit with a cover of Sir Elton John’s Your Song, which peaked at number two and was featured in the 2010 John Lewis Christmas advert.
Having spent more than 15 years in the music industry, Goulding has amassed a range of awards and nominations, including a musician of the year award from Harper’s Bazaar, two Brits, and two Grammy nods.
Outside of music, Goulding is an activist and philanthropist, having raised awareness for environmental causes and women’s issues.
In 2013 she took part in the Chime For Change concert, a global female empowerment initiative founded by Beyonce Knowles, actress Salma Hayek-Pinault and former Gucci creative director Frida Giannini to raise awareness for women’s issues related to education, health and justice.
She is also patron of The Marylebone Project, which provides services for homeless women, and is an ambassador for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
She was appointed a global goodwill ambassador for the UN Environment Programme in 2017 and is now a global environmental ambassador.
In September 2018, she called on the fashion industry to embrace sustainability while accepting the Eco Award at Fashion 4 Development’s eighth annual First Ladies Luncheon and a month later she addressed 85 heads of state at the Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference in London.
She also took part in the One Young World Summit in 2019 which saw young leaders and activists deliver speeches and panels on issues ranging from climate change, conflict and human rights.
She also teamed up with naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough in 2019 for the Our Planet series, providing the song In This Together.
A ground-breaking global initiative last year saw Nature recognised as an official artist on major streaming platforms. Goulding collaborated with the sounds of Nature for a track generating conservation funding through royalties obtained from music created by the artist persona.
Her Brightest Blue remix, featuring Nature, used sounds from the rainforests of Colombia, including speckled chachalacas in Caqueta and the birdsong of Amazonian oropendolas.
Goulding has one son named Arthur, who was born in 2021, with her former husband, art dealer Caspar Jopling.
