Three years after Ellie Goulding and The Weeknd scored smash hits from the Fifty Shades soundtrack ("Love Me Like You Do" and "Earned It," respectively), the former artist has paid tribute to the latter with a cover that's appropriately all hot and bothered.
While visiting BBC Radio 1's famed Live Lounge on Wednesday (November 28), Goulding delivered a faithful performance of The Weeknd's most recent single, "Call Out My Name." Like Abel's original version, the cover packs a ton of emotion and intensity into just four minutes — so much so, that when Goulding was done, she admitted, "I'm hot, I'm hot... in temperature!"
And for an extra dose of satisfaction, Goulding even snuck in a bit of Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River" in the song's final moments. "It's quite sexy, I think," she admitted — and we'd have to agree.
Speaking about her decision to cover "Call Out My Name," Goulding told host Clara Amfo that she was simply drawn to the song's emotion.
"I didn't necessarily think about the context... I just really love the way [The Weeknd] sings in this song. It's very meaningful and very heartfelt," the newly engaged singer said. She also noted that this isn't the first time she's tackled a Weeknd tune — back in 2012, she recorded a cover of "High For This," and he reached out to tell her he was a fan. "So I feel like I can get away with doing this," she told Amfo.
Goulding's Live Lounge visit also included a performance of her new Swae Lee-featuring, Diplo-produced single, "Close to Me." Check that out below.
