Image via Complex Original
If you haven’t heard of Lorde by now, then you’ve clearly been living under a giant soundproof rock. Whether you are (or aren’t) a fan of the 16-year-old phenomenon who hails from New Zealand, you might not know a ton about her. Like many new artists that come crashing onto the scene, Lorde is more of a name you know, than a story that's become folklore. Meanwhile, her debut single “Royals” has become her breakout song (maybe you heard it was racist too).
But Lorde is much more than the sum of her parts. She’s a burgeoning young artist that (as of right now) looks like she's destined for superstardom. From her song topics to the all-around sound of her music, Lorde is pushing the envelope of categorically "pop" music. Still, there’s much more you can know about her. So Complex is here to make things easy for you and tell you what all of the hype is about. Here are some factoids about the wunderkind presented as Everything You Need To Know About Lorde.
Written by Kathy Iandoli (@kath3000)
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The Basics
Here are the basics. Lorde, née Ella Yelich-O'Connor was born on November 7, 1996. Yes, you've read that correctly; Lorde is only 16 (she turns 17 next month). She was born in Auckland, New Zealand. She's been writing songs since she was barely a teenager.
"I've sung my entire life, but I didn't start writing music until I was 13," she told Noisey. "That's when I began tentatively writing crazy shit about what was happening at that moment." The same year she started songwriting, Lorde landed a record deal with Universal. Not bad for a girl who was discovered through a video of her performing at her school's talent show. Then again her mother, Sonja Yelich, is an award-winning poet, so the lyrics are in her DNA.
Origin of Her Name
So why the name Lorde? Well, she was fascinated with royalty for a long time (having "Royals" as her first single was pretty appropriate). "I used to write out all their family trees and everything!" she told Noisey about her fixation with the "royals." Her press photos include one of her with a dog for royalty's sake.
"I was thinking about royal families, like, Henry VIII, he's always got a little lap dog," she told New York Magazine. "So I thought, 'Oh, that'll be a cool vibe.'" So it only seemed right to create a stage name that was a slant on their naming convention.
"I was looking through a bunch of aristocratic titles, and I liked the word 'lord'—I liked the masculinity of it," she told NPR. "I just put an 'e' on the end to make it feminine, because I thought that juxtaposition was kind of cool."
Hopefully the copycats keep the royalty names to a minimum now that the real Lorde has arrived. Sorry Lord Disick.
Lorde Loves Hip-Hop
It goes without saying that Lorde is kind of a badass. She writes unabashed lyrics that reveal little nuggets of truth embedded within her textured vocals. Think Fiona Apple minus the uncontrolled craziness. Like Fiona, Lorde is a hip-hop fan, but she's not delusional about the ballerific lifestyles of hip-hop artists.
"I’ve always listened to a lot of rap," she told NY Mag. "It’s all, look at this car that cost me so much money, look at this Champagne. It’s super fun. It’s also some bullshit. When I was going out with my friends, we would raid someone’s freezer at her parents’ house because we didn’t have enough money to get dinner. So it seems really strange that we’re playing A$AP Rocky. I experienced this disconnect."
The Message
Lorde isn't trying to beef with rappers or anything; she's just trying to speak to her peers, i.e. those who might not be able to afford the finer things in life. She's known to frequent thrift shops and was working in an office while at high school just a year ago. Lorde writes music from that perspective.
She explained her reasoning in her feature for Interview magazine. "Around the middle of last year I started listening to a lot of rap, like Nicki Minaj and Drake, as well as pop singers like Lana Del Rey," she said. "They all sing about such opulence, stuff that just didn't relate to me—or anyone that I knew. I began thinking, 'How are we listening to this? It's completely irrelevant.'"
She adds to the sentiment with NPR: "I've always loved hip-hop, but as a fan of hip-hop, I've always had to kind of suspend disbelief because, obviously, I don't have a Bentley," she says with slight snark. "There's a distance between that and the life I have with my friends going to parties and getting public transport and doing the things that every other teenager does."
The Love Club EP & Pure Heroine Album
Toward the end of last year, Lorde released her debut EP The Love Club, a five-track introduction as to whom Lorde really is. "Royals" was included on the work, along with songs like the catchy "Bravado" and the title track which sounds like the antithesis to the Plastics from Mean Girls.
Her debut album Pure Heroine is a little more focused, as she and co-writer/producer Joel Little (of New Zealand Punk band Goodnight Nurse) grab inspiration from real life with fantasy to the tune of electro-pop.
Her follow-up single "Tennis Court" is a soulfully synthy anthem with hints of romance but with mounds of wit. The third single "Team" starts out trippy and then erupts into an '80s-style sequence of harmonies about not living the lavish life. Other songs like "Glory And Gore" are dark, but still exhibit some degrees of triumph. "It's clear that someone's gotta go," she sings on the semi-morbid cut. "We mean it but I promise we're not mean."
Then there's "Buzzcut Season," the ethereal love song where she sings "I'd live in a hologram with you." She's just as much pensive as she is punchy on the ten-track offering. Her style is multi-dimensional, with each layer well worth checking out.
She's Moving Units
The people have spoken, and Lorde is already a hit. Overseas, The Love Club EP went 4x Platinum in Australia and Gold in New Zealand. Meanwhile, Pure Heroine is Platinum in New Zealand, with "Royals" having gone 3x Platinum in New Zealand, and Platinum in Canada and Australia. "Tennis Court" is not too far behind, with Platinum certifications in New Zealand and Australia.
She's taking her track record Stateside too. "Royals" has reached the Number One spot on Billboard's Hot 100, with Lorde being the youngest artist since Tiffany—who released "I Think We're Alone Now" back in 1987—to top charts. Lorde's single also set a record for the Longest No. 1 at Alternative Radio by a Female Artist (per her press release), sitting at the top of the charts for seven whole weeks. And finally Pure Heroine just landed at No. 3 on the albums chart and moved 129,000 copies in its first week.
She's Got Beef In These Streets
Haters gonna hate. Of course the price of fame comes with inevitable backlash. The fan bases of other pop stars have taken to the Internets to slam little miss Lorde. The fans speaking the loudest are (ironically) the Miley Cyrus fan posse. "Go kill yourself you crusty old hag," Miley's fans told the 16-year-old Lorde following her snatching of the Number One iTunes spot from Cyrus.
Lorde had a sense of humor about it. "wo #1 on US itunes. even if it lasts an hour i feel HAPPY. downside is all these miley fans telling me they're gonna stab my rotting corpse," she tweeted on September 19th. Someone was listening. "Why r people so mean??? Ps your music is awesome," Miley tweeted in response. Miley Cyrus fans, go have a seat. Even your leader is on board with Lorde.
That doesn't make her all the way innocent though. Lorde has taken some jabs at other pop stars. "I try to stay away from talking about boys all the time. You can go to Taylor Swift to hear that," she told New York Magazine, referring to Swift as "flawless" and "unattainable" in an interview with Metro, citing how detrimental that is to teens. She's also fired shots at Selena Gomez for the nature of her lyrics. How do you take your beef, Lorde? Well done, right?