Ellie Goulding is set to launch her next chapter with the Big Sean duet 'Easy Lover'.

The 'Burn' hitmaker recently surprised fans with a sped-up version of her 2010 hit 'Lights', and she's now announced her first new music of 2022 will be the collaboration with the American rapper, which is due out on July 15, and has been a "long time coming".

Ellie told fans on her mailing list: "'Easy Lover' featuring the loveliest man of all time Big Sean, out July 15th.

"This has been a long time coming.

"It's had many lives and I'm expecting it to pop off in 2032. Can't wait for you to hear it."

The 'Still Falling For You' hitmaker's last studio album was 2020's 'Brightest Blue', while she released the single 'New Love' with Silk City, Mark Ronson and Diplo's electronic music side project, last year.

Teasing new music was coming soon, Ellie recently shared a series of snaps from her performance at Brazil's Rock in Rio festival and wrote on Instagram: "My happy place… with all of you. Only difference soon is that there will be some new music to give. Think I’m onto something."

Last summer, the 35-year-old pop star described her upcoming album as "a dance thing from outer space".

After getting "quite introspective" on her last studio effort, the 'Close to Me' singer revealed she was going back to her electronic dance-pop roots.

She said: “I spent a lot of time by myself, quite introspective.

“I had a backlog of things I wanted to write about. It was quite deep and emotional. And this album is the opposite of that.

“I found this dream team of writers, who just for some reason, without even having to talk about it, were all on the same page. Together we’re on this mission just to have fun.

“We just want to make music for people to dance to and forget about everything in the past year."

Ellie signalled the new era when she teamed up with Silk City on the disco-pop banger.

'Brightest Blue' marked the 'Love Me Like You Do' hitmaker's first LP in five years and she previously admitted she didn't feel "emotionally equipped" to make an album in that time.

Ellie - who became a mother for the first time in April last year to son Arthur, 14 months, whom she has with husband Caspar Jopling - said: "There definitely were certain things that set me back. I felt like I was in a place where the songs were not reaching, they weren't strong enough in my opinion.

"So I waited until I was properly ready and emotionally equipped.

"I also had technical stuff, like a change of management, I moved back to London and I got married. So lots of things happened in that time and it's only really now that I feel like I'm completely ready to embrace that life again."