Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor (born 7 November 1996), known professionally as Lorde (pronounced lord ), is a New Zealand singer, songwriter, and record producer who holds both New Zealand and Croatian citizenship. [1] Born in
Takapuna and raised in Devonport , she became interested in performing as a child. In her early teens, she signed with
Universal Music Group and was later paired with songwriter and record producer Joel Little . At the age of sixteen, she released her first extended play, The Love Club EP (2012), reaching number two on the national record charts in both New Zealand and Australia.
Lorde
Lorde performing in November 2017
Born
Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor
7 November 1996 (age 21)
Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand
Residence
Herne Bay, Auckland , New Zealand
Occupation
Singer, songwriter, record producer
Years active
2009–present
Relatives
Sonja Yelich (mother)
Musical career
Origin
Devonport, Auckland , New Zealand
Genres
Art pop • dream pop • electropop •
indie pop
Instruments
Vocals
Labels
UMG • Lava • Republic
Associated acts
Joel Little • Michael A. Levine •
Jack Antonoff
Website
" Royals " was released as Lorde's debut single in mid-2013, becoming an international crossover hit reaching number one in many charts, making her the youngest solo artist to achieve a number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 since 1987. Lorde's debut studio album Pure Heroine (2013) garnered positive reviews for her depiction of suburban adolescence; yielding the additional top-ten single " Team", it topped the national charts in New Zealand and Australia and reached number three on the US Billboard 200 .
The following year, Lorde curated the soundtrack for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014) and provided its lead single, " Yellow Flicker Beat ", for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song . Lorde released her second studio album Melodrama (2017) after a three-year hiatus, launched with " Green Light " as its lead single. [2] The album debuted at number one in New Zealand and Australia, as well as topping the US
Billboard 200. She served as an executive producer alongside
Jack Antonoff . The record deals with themes of heartbreak and solitude.
Lorde's music consists of subgenres such as dream pop and
indietronica . She has earned two Grammy Awards, a Brit Award and ten New Zealand Music Awards
. In 2013, she was named among Time 's most influential teenagers in the world, and in the following year, she was part of Forbes 's "30 Under 30" list.
Life and career
1996–2008: Early life
Lorde was born Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor in Takapuna, Auckland on 7 November 1996, [3][4][5] the daughter of poet
Sonja Yelich ( Croatian : Sonja Jelić ) and civil engineer Vic O'Connor. Her mother was born to Croatian immigrants from the region of Dalmatia , while her father has Irish ancestry. [6] She was raised in the nearby suburb of Devonport, Auckland with her two sisters, Jerry and India, and one brother, Angelo.
[7][8] At age five, she joined a drama group and developed
public speaking skills. [9] At that same time, Lorde was attending Vauxhall School and later Belmont Intermediate School . [10] Her mother encouraged her to read a range of genres, which Lorde cited as a lyrical influence: "I guess my mum influenced my lyrical style by always buying me books. She'd give me a mixture of kid and adult books too, there weren't really any books I wasn't allowed to read. I remember reading Feed by M.T. Anderson when I was six, and her giving me Salinger and Carver at a young age, and
Janet Frame really young too." [11][4] Lorde played netball at a young age alongside Vauxhall classmate Eliza McCartney , who later became an Olympic bronze medallist pole vaulter.
[12]
2009–11: Career beginnings
Lorde (left) and Louis McDonald (right) performing at The Vic Unplugged in 2010
In May 2009, Lorde and musician friend Louis McDonald won the Belmont Intermediate School annual talent show as a duo. [13] On 13 August 2009, Lorde and McDonald were invited in for a chat on Jim Mora's Afternoons show on Radio New Zealand . There, they performed covers of Pixie Lott 's " Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh) " and Kings of Leon 's " Use Somebody". [14] McDonald's father Ian sent both his home audio recording of her and Louis McDonald covering Duffy 's song " Warwick Avenue " and his home video recording of the pair singing Pixie Lott's "Mama Do" to Universal Music Group (UMG)'s A&R Scott Maclachlan. [11][15] In 2009 Maclachlan signed her to UMG for development. [16] Lorde was also part of the Belmont Intermediate School band Extreme; the band placed third in the North Shore Battle of the Bands finals at the Bruce Mason Centre, Takapuna, Auckland on 18 November 2009. [17]
Lorde performs her own songs at The Vic Unplugged II in 2011, aged 15
In 2010 Lorde and McDonald performed covers live on a regular basis as a duet called "Ella & Louis", playing at The Leigh Sawmill Cafe on 15 August, at Roasted Addiqtion Cafe in Kingsland on 20 August, at The Vic Unplugged at Victoria Theatre, Devonport on 27 October, and at Devonstock in Devonport on 12 December. [18] While working on her music career, she attended Takapuna Grammar School from 2010 to 2013, completing Year twelve . [19] She later chose not to return in 2014 to finish Year thirteen . [20]
In 2011, UMG hired vocal coach Frances Dickinson to give Lorde singing lessons twice a week for a year. [21] During this time, she began writing songs and was set up with a succession of songwriters, but without success. [16][22] At the age of fourteen, Lorde started reading short fiction and learned how to "put words together". [23] She performed her own original songs publicly for the first time at The Vic Unplugged II on the Devonport Victoria Theatre main stage on 16 November 2011. [24] In December 2011, MacLachlan paired Lorde with Joel Little , a songwriter, record producer, and former Goodnight Nurse lead singer. The pair recorded five songs for an EP at Little's Golden Age Studios in
Morningside, Auckland , and finished within three weeks. [25]
2012–2015: Pure Heroine and The Hunger Games soundtrack
In November 2012, Lorde self-released the record, entitled
The Love Club EP , through her SoundCloud account for free download. [7] After being freely downloaded 60,000 times, UMG commercially released the EP for sales in March 2013.
[16] The EP peaked at number two on the record charts of New Zealand and Australia. [26] In June of that year, "Royals" was released as a single from the EP. [27] The single became a crossover hit , peaking atop the US Billboard Hot 100 for nine consecutive weeks. [28] Consequently, Lorde became the youngest solo artist to achieve a number-one single in the US with "Royals", since Tiffany 's " I Think We're Alone Now " (1987). [29] The track eventually won the 2013 APRA Silver Scroll Award , [30] and two Grammy Awards for Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. [31]
Lorde at the Decibel Festival in Seattle , September 2013
In September 2013, Lorde released her debut studio album,
Pure Heroine . [32] The album topped the charts of New Zealand and Australia and reached the top five of several national charts, including Canada, Ireland, Norway and the United Kingdom. [33][34] In the US, Pure Heroine peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, [35] and had sold 1.33 million copies by 2014. [36] Worldwide, Pure Heroine had sold 1.5 million copies by the end of 2013. [37] The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album .
[31]
The release of Pure Heroine was preceded by four singles: "Tennis Court" was released in June 2013, [38] topping the New Zealand Singles Chart; [39] the third single, "Team", became a top-ten hit worldwide; [35][39] and "No Better", a song only included on the extended version of Pure Heroine , and "Glory and Gore" were released as the two final singles from the record, respectively. [40] In September 2013, Lorde's cover version of the Tears for Fears single " Everybody Wants to Rule the World ", produced by Michael A. Levine and Lucas Cantor, [41] was included on The Hunger Games: Catching Fire film soundtrack . [42]
In November 2013, Lorde signed a publishing deal with Songs Music Publishing , worth a reported US$2.5 million, after a bidding war between various companies, including Sony Music Entertainment and her label UMG. The agreement gives the publisher the right to license Lorde's music for films and advertising. [43][44] Late that year, she started a relationship with photographer James Lowe. [45][46]
Lorde as part of the 2014 Lollapalooza line-up
In December 2013, Lorde announced that she had begun writing material for her second studio album. [47] In June 2014, Lorde said that her second studio album was in its early stages and that, so far, it was "totally different" from her debut album. [48] In the first half of 2014, Lorde headlined various festivals, including the Laneway Festival in Sydney,
[49] the three South American editions of Lollapalooza — Chile , Santiago; [50] Buenos Aires , Argentina; [51] and São Paulo , Brazil [52] —and the Coachella Festival in California. [53]
To promote The Love Club EP and Pure Heroine , Lorde embarked on an international tour, the first leg of which was held in North America in early 2014. [54] She later announced the Australian leg, held in July, [55] and the second North American leg, held in August. [56] In April of that year, Lorde performed " All Apologies " with the surviving members of
Nirvana during the band's induction cere
