If you are one of the 8.7 million people who follow the singer Ellie Goulding on Instagram, you’ll know that she is just back from a trip to northern Norway, sledging with huskies. It was, apparently, a last-minute break, taken with two friends.

'I just wanted to get away for a few days, as it’s been a crazy year,’ she says. 'We drove about five hours from Oslo up to the mountains, and once I got there I knew it was going to be good for me.’ We first met in August, before the release of the 29-year-old’s third album, Delirium, after a three-year hiatus.

It would turn out to be the calm before the storm. She was nervous about unleashing the album, with its big 'pop’ sound ('This is in some ways an experiment,’ she said at the time). Since then it has sold two million worldwide, she has been nominated for a Grammy for best pop solo performance and she has had a hectic schedule of single launches before Christmas.