The MagazineCanada

Ellie Goulding’s appearance on BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge featured a bold reinterpretation of Justin Timberlake’s Mirrors. The Live Lounge format invites artists to strip back familiar hits and present them with a sense of immediacy and vulnerability, and Goulding approached the stage with a clear intent to reveal another facet of the song. Mirrors is a track defined by glossy synths, polished production, and Timberlake’s signature vocal swagger. In Goulding’s hands, the piece shifts into a more intimate key of expression; her bright, flexible voice carries a melodic line that breathes without the studio shine that defined the original. The result is not a do-over, but a rethreading of the melody that highlights phrasing, vulnerability, and a confident sense of restraint. While a number of listeners will still prefer Timberlake’s version for its production energy, Goulding’s take feels like a conversation with the song rather than a performance to outshine it. For audiences across Canada and the United States, the clip offers a rare glimpse of how a pop hit can be refracted through a different voice and found anew in a live setting. The approach showcases Goulding’s comfort in adapting big choruses to a private, conversational delivery, turning the familiar hook into something that lands with a fresh emotional clarity. In this setting, the contrast between the singer’s pop sensibility and the song’s suave chorus becomes a point of discovery rather than a mere rehash.