Ellie Goulding

“Under the Sheets”
from the album Lights
2010 (2011 U.S.)
iTunes

Ellie Goulding scored a few more American fans as she graced the Saturday Night Live stage in New York City last night (May 7), showing off the ethereal vocals that have impressed her supporters both stateside and overseas.

Hosted by former cast member Tina Fey, the show was fittingly centered on Mother’s Day, with the six-months-pregnant funny girl bringing out Maya Rudolph, also expecting, to sing a duet dedicated to their unborn babies.

Before Goulding performed, skits included a parody of Bravo’s TV show Pregnant in Heels, Rudolph starring in a birth-class sketch that poked fun at old home-birthing films, and Fey acting as SNL character Bedelia’s mother and the expected Sarah Palin appearance, of course played by Fey again.

When the British songstress had her time to shine, she showcased her slim figure in a black leather dress. Ellie, fittingly draped in a cascade of lights, moved into her Richard Stannard and Ash Howes-produced slice of indie pop goodness, “Lights.” Her tender vocals commenced the song with, “I had a way then losing it all on my own / I had a heart then but the queen has been overthrown / And I’m not sleeping now, the dark is too hard to beat / And I’m not keeping now, the strength I need to push me.”

On the new music front, the 24-year-old talent has her sights set on working with folk-rockers Mumford & Sons on a new tour. “I’m friends with them and I know that they are fun on tour,” Goulding told Spinner. “We’ve bumped into each other a couple of times in the UK … It would be nice to see a band that I’m a really big fan of every night.”