She performed it on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge:

http://hypem.com/track/1281463?awesm...ce=twitter.com

This is amazing

Wow! Amazing!

I her!

Damn! This sucks...

I hate her so much

If I was Navy I would not want her singing Riri's songs.

RiRi sounds better .

girls...sit riri loves ellie and wants to collab with her and ellie was quoted saying that she loves riri also and would collab so she's simply paying homage and how can u hate ellie? omg!! lol

Amazing.

lol now Ellie has haters right? LMFAO
Ellie is PURE love. Great cover

Absolutely amazing! I just love how she made it her own <3

This is beautiful.
If she has haters then she's doing something right.

amazing! I love the violins!!!! The melody shines with this version

Only Girl is already a classic and it has enormous longevity worldwide, it will remain one of Rihanna's signature songs, RiRi keeps churning out quality music i can't

Ellie needs to stop doing covers, and get to work on her 2nd album.

Yasss this is amazing

Only Girl is already a classic song being covered by everybody

I really do love ellie's twist on this song, she really does study it and make it her own. Love Ellie Goulding and lights and also love Only Girl.

When did she perform it? There was no visible effect on OG on itunes apparently...

I like it much more than the original.

Though, was it performed live in the studio? It doesn't sound live at all. The vocals are really on point, but of course, Ellie could just be that good of a singer. The main give away is the backing track. All those instruments, piano, guitar, violins, and not a bum note all the way through . . . how do they manage that live?

Just because someone covers a song doesn't mean the original will start to do good.