Ellie Goulding responds to headdress backlash

A photo Ellie Goulding posted to her Instagram account of her wearing a Native American headdress. Photo / Instagram

British pop star Ellie Goulding has vowed to support a Native American charity after she came under fire for wearing a feathered headdress in a photograph.

The Burn songwriter faced a backlash over her attire, which appeared to be a Halloween costume, from online users, who branded the picture "offensive" and "ignorant" in comments on her Instagram.com page after the picture was posted last week.

Singer Ellie Goulding wearing a Native American headdress. Photo / Instagram

Goulding removed the photo. Although she did not publicly apologise for her outfit, she replied to a fan on Twitter.com, writing, "I wore that beautiful unauthentic headpiece for about 5 minutes. I havnt (sic) worn my costume for Halloween yet."

Another Twitter user brought Goulding's attention to the Running Strong grant program for Native American youths and asked her to donate or support the charity, to which she replied, "Then I shall! Thank you."

Singer Ellie Goulding wearing a Native American headdress. Photo / Instagram

Gwen Stefani, Harry Styles and Khloe Kardashian have previously come under fire for donning similar headdresses.

- WENN