Ellie Goulding shines with Bridget Jones and Calvin Harris songs at Mastercard's #PricelessSurprises

Ellie Goulding had the pleasure of launching Mastercard's new round of Priceless Surprises concerts last night (22 September). The British pop treasure performed to a small audience at London's One Marylebone and brought the intimate venue to life with her slew of radio-friendly hit singles.

The main draw of Mastercard's annual concert series is that the lucky competition winners feel that little bit closer to the performer than they would if watching them at an arena tour show. This was certainly delivered with Goulding's hour-long set, which perfectly balanced tons of energy with a mellow mood. Standout hits such as Calvin Harris's Outside – which she sang on – and her own On My Mind still felt full of life even within the confines of the small venue with little choreography.

A live rearrangement of Goulding's 2013 hit Burn sounded even more anthemic than the recorded version, complemented with the singer utilising her talents on the guitar.

Swerving seamlessly between her string of club hits, including some of her top 10 singles with her regular collaborator Calvin Harris, to her slower-tempo melodic numbers like the uplifting Anything Can Happen, worked well to keep the pace afloat without the advantage of being able to dazzle the audience with the scale of an arena.

Part of Goulding's charm is not only her sweet mannerisms, which was evident throughout this Priceless gig, but her silky-soft vocals. In fact, Goulding's voice is so pleasingly bold and breathy at points that it almost sounds like she is lip-syncing. Only in the moments of sheer note-belting does Goulding prove she is singing live.

Over the last couple of years, Goulding has become the go-to-girl for soundtrack ballads. The pop star currently features on the Bridget Jones' Baby soundtrack number Falling For You, a heart-tugging sweet cut, while she dominated the charts with sultry Fifty Shades Of Grey track Love Me Like You Do. At the Priceless gig, Goulding gives both songs the chance to standout with emotionally-charged productions.

Listen to Ellie Goulding's Love Me Like You Do:

Goulding's stellar performance was so engaging that it felt slightly disappointing when the performance finished a few minutes shy of the one hour mark. Simply because, with the amount of hits she has under her belt, we wanted more. Ultimately, Goulding did her job in sending the audience home feeling fuzzy with the sounds of Love Me Like You Do still ringing in ears and we can not ask for more than that.

Mastercard's Priceless Surprises continues with Mark Ronson. For tickets and more information, visit the Mastercard website.