Ellie Goulding to sing for William and Kate

Ellie Goulding is to sing for Prince William and Kate Middleton at their wedding party, it has emerged. The 24-year-old is said to be "knocked off her feet" by the request.

Goulding will entertain guests at the dinner dance, which is intended to be a less formal counterpart to the champagne-and-canapes reception the Queen will host first. According to the Daily Mail, the royal couple are both big fans of her music.

Goulding's first album, Lights, came out in 2010 and she found fame at Christmas with a cover version of the Elton John classic, Your Song, which was picked up by an advertising company and used to promote John Lewis.

Winning the critics' choice prize at last year's Brit Awards and the BBC Sound of 2010 award, Goulding has come a long way in a few years from her upbringing in a "tiny little council house" in Hereford were her mother was a supermarket check-out worker.

Goulding left home at 16 and paid her own way through the University of Kent, dropping out part-way through her course to focus on a burgeoning music career.

William and Kate are said to have been interested in having Jay-Z and Beyonce perform at the party, though it is not known whether the superstar couple were actually asked to take part.

Rumours that Prince Harry will take to the decks to play a set of hard house and happy hardcore classics after Goulding has finished have not been confirmed by St James's Palace. ·