They say it's the quiet ones who are the worst, but maybe it's just that we pay more attention when they do have something juicy to say.

Either way, we were delighted to see Ellie Goulding taking a swipe at nasty X Factor New Zealand judges Natalia Kills and Willy Moon following their bullying of a hapless contestant.

The 28-year-old star, who hardly has a reputation for being outspoken on Twitter, couldn't stop herself from venting after getting wound-up by that now-famous clip.

"You sort of have to be, you know, vaguely relevant to have your style stolen just saying," she tweeted.

And when a fan praised her for the comment, she replied: "Wellll I can shade too. Wait is that the right word?!"

However she obviously thought better of it and later deleted the tweet.

Chatting with a pal on the social network, she gave her verdict on whether the whole sorry episode was just a publicity stunt or "genuinely awful".

"Nah just genuinely awful because I'm not sure they were intent on ruining their careers FOREVER," she declared.

And she explained: "Can't stop myself from commenting on NZ X factor situation because I can't stop thinking about how mean it was. Thank goodness they're gone"

However Kills and Moon's former colleague on the panel Stan Walker said he thought that Kills had "got what she wanted".

"She achieved what she wanted to. The world knows her name now," he said.

But he went on to insist that the duo were not bad people and had just got carried away.

"I actually feel sorry for them because they've got themselves into this, they're nice people you know - it's just with these stupid things, outrageous things."