Easy Lover

"Easy Lover" is a song by English singer Ellie Goulding featuring American rapper Big Sean, released on 15 July 2022 through Polydor Records as the lead single from her fifth studio album Higher Than Heaven. It was written by Goulding, Sean, Greg Kurstin and Julia Michaels, and produced by Kurstin. Background In January 2022, Goulding hinted at releasing new music in an Instagram post and expressed concerns about having to manage her mental wellbeing. In July 2022, Goulding sent an email to her fans "that the song was a long time coming and that it had had many lives". In an interview with Billboard, she detailed the process behind working with Kurstin and Michaels for the song, saying: "I think one of us was dealing with a known f–kboy at the time, but we ended up with a song about going back to the same person who’s hurt you and you think you can change them. We always say we can change someone, and we can’t". Regarding the collaboration process with Big Sean on the record, she added: "We’ve stayed in touch for years because he sampled me a couple of times, I always feel like there’s something pretty special in someone who appreciates me that early on as an artist, so I’ve stayed in touch with everyone from that era, in particular him because I think’s he’s consistently been a brilliant artist. At some point we were going to do a collab, and it just happened to be this song". A solo version of the song was later released on 26 August 2022.