Ellie Goulding loves being single.

The 'Burn' hitmaker - who has dated BBC Radio 1 DJ Greg James and has been romantically linked to One Direction's Niall Horan - insists she's very much unattached at the moment and is enjoying her dating status.

She said: ''I am so single now - I am single and I am loving it. I can't imagine being in that place now.

''Being alone I've realised a lot of things about myself and who I am. In the last six months I've completely changed - being single has taught me that I have to focus on myself.

''But I have a team of people around me who would slap me down the second I turned into a k**b or started acting like a diva.''

The 26-year-old singer also admits any potential romance with Ed Sheeran - who she was photographed holding hands with at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this year - was destroyed by the scrutiny their relationship was placed under.

Speaking to The Sun newspaper, she explained: ''Let's get this straight - I think Ed is a really wonderful person and I love him as an artist. We were definitely very close at one point. And we're not close now but we certainly are friends now ... We were hanging out and having a nice time but it was put into the spotlight so drastically.

''That amount of scrutiny freaked me out. But I don't regret holding his hand at all because we were really close.''