Ellie Goulding Sues Ex-Management Company Over Live Nation Ties

The English pop star says her team at Tap Management pushed her to work with Live Nation, but never disclosed that the company owned Tap

Ellie Goulding is suing her former management company in the U.K., alleging conflicts of interest over the company’s ties to Live Nation, according to a suit obtained by Rolling Stone.

Between 2018 and 2025, Goulding was a client at Tap Management, a firm founded in 2010 by Benedict Mawson and Edward Millett. As Goulding’s lawsuit notes, Live Nation purchased a 50.1 percent stake in Tap Management — via its own parent company, HNOE — in 2015, then bought the rest of the company in 2019.

Goulding alleges that her management team never disclosed Live Nation’s ownership stake in Tap. And while she was a Tap client, she claims, her team regularly pushed her to deal with Live Nation and its subsidiaries for various things, such as concert promotion, merchandise, and a documentary.

Goulding claims that Mawson, Millet, and HNOE — all defendants in the suit — had financial and commercial interests in ensuring she did business with Live Nation. (Live Nation is not a defendant. Mawson, Millet, and Tap did not immediately return requests for comment. A rep for Goulding declined to comment.) The suit calls this a breach of their duty to her as their management client to find her the best overall deal.

“[E]ach of the Defendants had a personal interest or duty in dealings between Ms. Goulding and companies in the Live Nation group, which was in actual or potential conflict with the interests of Ms Goulding in securing the best commercial terms with whichever promoter, merchandiser, or other counterparty it was most advantageous for her to deal with,” the suit states. Goulding is seeking unspecified compensation and damages, as well as additional relief.

Goulding signed with Tap in 2018, joining a top-tier roster that, at the time, included Lana Del Rey and Dua Lipa. (Lipa has since left the firm.) At the time, Goulding was coming off her 2015 album, Delirium, which peaked at Number Three on the U.K. and U.S. album charts and featured the hit single, “On My Mind.”

The musician remained with Tap through the release of her next albums, 2020’s Brightest Blue and 2023’s Higher Than Heaven. She is currently gearing up for the release of her sixth studio album, I Know Too Much, which is set to arrive Sept. 4. 

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Back in January, the British tabloid The Sun reported that Goulding and Tap had parted ways, with anonymous sources for both sides suggesting they left the other. One source said, “Ellie left her arrangement with Tap in December [2025]. As she moves into the new year with a strong sense of clarity, she is focused on family first with her second child due in just a few weeks. Ellie is an artist who is a proven hit machine and is one of the most important and unique voices that has come out of the UK. She deserves to be treated like the global superstar that she is.”

Meanwhile, a source described as “close to Tap” said, “Tap resigned from working with Ellie on December 9th. They are proud of all they achieved together but after eight years felt it was in both sides’ interests to part company.”