Though Ellie Goulding has had millions of streams on songs like "Hate Me," "Close to Me" and "Burn," among many others, the star has only ever been nominated for one Grammy Award (a pop solo performance nod in 2016 for "Love Me Like You Do").
The singer pondered the state of the music industry, and how award shows undermine the hard work of artists in a lengthy new essay published on Wednesday (Dec. 2). "When peers and friends get nominated for a major award, I am so, so happy to see them rewarded for their hard work and especially for their brilliant writing," she explained. "From my perspective, there is nothing greater than listening to a song or an album that has saved you, inspired you, evoked deep emotion in some new sort of way… and then see it get the attention and award it deserves. At the same time, there is always a crushing, horrible feeling for my peers and friends who don’t get acknowledged, by the very same system, for their work year-after-year despite making music I and many others believe is ground-breaking."