- Pop artist born Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor in 1996 in Auckland New Zealand.
- She chose the stage name Lorde when she was 16, because she was fascinated with royals and aristocracy, and she wanted a name that was strong and had a grandeur to it. She added the ‘e’ on the end to make it appear more feminine.
- In 2009, she and a friend competed as a duo in a school talent show, and won. Later that year, they were invited to a radio broadcast where they performed songs by Pixie Lott (a popular artist in the UK) and Kings of Leon. They also had a recording of a cover of a song by Duffy, which was sent to a record company executive. Lorde was signed to a development contract based on her demo work – she was barely 13 years old.
- In 2011, her record company hired a vocal coach, and she started writing songs. She started reading fiction to improve her writing skills, and by November that year, she had her first public performance of songs written by her. The record company paired her with producer Joel Little, and in late 2011 they recorded 5 songs for an EP called The Love Club EP.
- Lorde self released the EP on her SoundCloud account for free in November 2012. After 60,000 downloads, her record company decided it was time to release it commercially, in March 2013. Lorde was now 16 years old.
- One of the songs on the EP was Royals. The song became a huge hit – it reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and stayed their for 9 weeks. Eventually, the song had over 7 million downloads, and it won 2 Grammy awards, including Song of the Year. Pretty good for someone who could barely get a driver’s license!
- Her debut studio album was released in September 2013 – Pure Heroine. The album included the song Royals, along with 9 other songs written by Lorde and Little. The single Team peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, selling over 4 million downloads, and the album has sold over 3 million copies in the U.S.
- In 2014, Lorde released Yellow Flicker Beat as the first single from the soundtrack to the film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, and she contributed vocals to several other songs on the soundtrack.
- Her second album, Melodrama, was released in June 2017. It has been acclaimed by critics as one of the best albums of 2017. The first single from the album, Green Light, reached #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
- It’s early, but Lorde shows huge potential in becoming a major music success story. We’ll have to keep an eye on her. Here’s the song that put this teenager on the map – Royals.