After signing to Polydor Records in July 2009, Ellie Goulding released her debut extended play, An Introduction to Ellie Goulding later that year. In 2010, she became the second artist to top the BBC's annual Sound of… poll and win the Critics' Choice Award at the Brit Awards in the same year.
She released her debut studio album, Lights, in 2010; it debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and has sold over 850,000 copies in the United Kingdom. In November 2010, the album was reissued as Bright Lights, which spawned two singles: a cover of Elton John's "Your Song" which was selected for the first John Lewis Christmas advert, reached number two on the UK Singles Chart, and "Lights", which became Goulding's highest-charting single on the US Billboard Hot 100 to date, peaking at number two.
Goulding's second studio album, Halcyon, was released in October 2012. "Anything Could Happen" preceded the album as the lead single. The album debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart, and after 65 weeks, it reached number one. Halcyon debuted at number nine on the US Billboard 200.
At the 2014 Brit Awards, she received the award for British Female Solo Artist. Goulding released her third studio album, titled Delirium, on 6 November 2015, with "On My Mind" as the album's lead single. In December 2015, she received her first Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Solo Performance for her single "Love Me Like You Do".
In early 2015, Goulding released the song "Love Me like You Do", which was featured in the soundtrack to the film adaptation of the erotic romance novel Fifty Shades of Grey. The video was released to YouTube on 22 January, to precede an official release date of 15 February.
The single has been a commercial success, spending four weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart, topping the charts in many other nations including Australia, New Zealand, and Germany, and reaching number three on the US Billboard Hot 100. The single held the record for the most-streamed track in a single week in the United Kingdom (streamed 2.58 million times), and worldwide (streamed 15.5 million times).
On 7 December 2015, "Love Me like You Do" earned Goulding a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Solo Performance. In the nominations for the 2016 Brit Awards announced on 14 January 2016, the song was among the nominees for British Single of the Year, and Best British Video. Goulding starred in the music video for Taylor Swift's song "Bad Blood", which was released in May 2015.
