Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor (born 7 November 1996), known professionally as Lorde ( ), is a New Zealand singer-songwriter. An influential figure in alternative pop music, she is known for her unconventional production style and introspective songwriting.
Lorde first gained recognition as a teenager during a talent show performance. After signing with Universal Music Group (UMG), she began working with producer Joel Little and released the extended play (EP) The Love Club EP (2012). Her debut single, "Royals", topped the Billboard Hot 100, won two Grammy Awards, and became one of the best-selling singles of all time. Her debut studio album, Pure Heroine (2013), achieved further critical acclaim and commercial success. The following year, Lorde curated the soundtrack for the 2014 film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.
Lorde collaborated with producer Jack Antonoff on her next album, Melodrama (2017), which debuted atop the US Billboard 200 and has since been ranked among of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" by Rolling Stone. She explored indie folk and psychedelic styles on her third studio album, Solar Power (2021), before returning to an electronic-oriented sound for her fourth studio album, Virgin (2025).
Lorde's accolades include 20 Aotearoa Music Awards, two Grammy Awards, two Brit Awards, a Taite Music Prize and a nomination for a Golden Globe Award. She appeared in Times list of the most influential teenagers in 2013 and 2014, and the 2014 edition of Forbes 30 Under 30. In addition to her solo work, she has co-written songs for other artists, including Broods and Bleachers.
Life and career
1996–2008: Early life Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor was born on 7 November 1996 in Takapuna, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, to poet Sonja Yelich () and civil engineer Vic O'Connor. Her mother was born to Croatian immigrants from the region of Dalmatia, while her father is of Irish descent. They announced their engagement in 2014, after a 30-year relationship, and they married in a 2017 private ceremony on Cheltenham Beach. Lorde holds dual New Zealand and Croatian citizenship.
Lorde is the second of four children: she has an elder sister Jerry, a younger sister India, and a younger brother Angelo. They were raised in Auckland's North Shore suburbs of Devonport and Bayswater. At age five, she joined a drama group and developed public speaking skills. Her mother encouraged her to read a range of genres, which Lorde cited as a lyrical influence. More specifically, she cites the young adult dystopian novel Feed (2002) by M. T. Anderson as well as authors J. D. Salinger, Raymond Carver and Janet Frame for influencing her songwriting.
After a suggestion from a teacher at her school, her mother had her take the Woodcock–Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities to determine her intelligence. The results concluded that Lorde, age six, was a gifted child. She was briefly enrolled at George Parkyn Centre, a gifted education organisation. Sonja unenrolled her, however, citing social development concerns. As a child, Lorde attended Vauxhall School and then Belmont Intermediate School. While attending Vauxhall, she placed third and first respectively in the North Shore Primary Schools' Speech competition, a national contest, in 2006 and 2007.
2009–2012: Career beginnings
Lorde and her Belmont team were named the runner-up in the 2009 Kids' Lit Quiz World Finals, a global literature competition for students aged 10 to 14. In May 2009, Lorde and her friend Louis McDonald won the Belmont Intermediate School annual talent show as a duo. In August that year, Lorde and McDonald made a guest appearance 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". McDonald's father then sent his recordings of the duo covering "Mama Do" and Duffy's "Warwick Avenue" to Universal Music Group (UMG)'s A&R executive Scott Maclachlan. Maclachlan subsequently signed her to UMG for development.
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. In 2010, Lorde and McDonald formed a duet called "Ella & Louis" and performed covers live on a regular basis at local venues, including cafés in Auckland and the Victoria Theatre in Devonport. In 2011, UMG hired vocal coach Frances Dickinson to give her singing lessons twice a week for a year. During this time, Maclachlan attempted to partner Lorde with several different producers and songwriters, but without success. As she began writing songs, she learned how to "put words together" by reading short fiction.
Lorde performed her original songs for the first time at the Victoria Theatre in November 2011. In December, Maclachlan paired Lorde with Joel Little, a songwriter, record producer, and former Goodnight Nurse lead singer. The pair recorded five songs for an extended play (EP) at Little's Golden Age Studios in Morningside, Auckland, and finished within three weeks. While working on her music career, she attended Takapuna Grammar School from 2010 to 2013, completing Year 12. She later chose not to return in 2014 to attend Year 13.
2013–2015: Pure Heroine
When Lorde and Little had finished their first collaborative effort, The Love Club EP, Maclachlan applauded it as a "strong piece of music", but worried if the EP could profit because Lorde was obscure at the time. In November 2012, the singer self-released the EP through her SoundCloud account for free download. UMG commercially released The Love Club in March 2013 after it had been downloaded 60,000 times, signalling that Lorde had attracted a broad audience. It peaked at number two in New Zealand and Australia. "Royals", the EP's lead single, helped Lorde rise to prominence after it became a critical and commercial success, selling more than 10 million units worldwide. It peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making Lorde, then 16 years old, the youngest artist to earn a number-one single in the United States since Tiffany in 1987. The track has since been certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America. It won two Grammy Awards for Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year at the 56th ceremony, and was named Single of the Year at the 2013 New Zealand Music Awards. From late 2013 to early 2016, Lorde was in a relationship with New Zealand photographer James Lowe.
Lorde's debut studio album Pure Heroine, which contained the single "Royals", was released in September 2013 to critical acclaim; it appeared on several year-end best album lists. The album received considerable attention for its portrayal of suburban teenage disillusionment and critiques of mainstream culture. In the United States, the album sold more than one million copies by February 2014, becoming the first debut album by a female artist since Adele's 19 (2008) to achieve the feat. Pure Heroine earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album and won the 2014 Taite Music Prize for the best New Zealand album of 2013; it had sold six million copies worldwide as of June 2021. Three other singles were released from the album: "Tennis Court" reached number one in New Zealand, while "Team" charted at number six in the United States, and "Glory and Gore" was released exclusively to US radio. At the 2014 New Zealand Music Awards, Lorde won six awards: Album of the Year and Best Pop Album for Pure Heroine, Single of the Year for "Team", Highest Selling New Zealand Single for "Royals", Best Female Solo Artist, and the International Achievement Award.
In November 2013, Lorde signed a publishing deal with Songs Music Publishing, worth a reported US$2.5 million, after a bidding war between companies including Sony Music Entertainment and her label UMG. The agreement gave the publisher the right to license Lorde's music for films and advertising. Later that month, Lorde was featured on the soundtrack for the 2013 film The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, performing a cover of Tears for Fears' 1985 song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World". Time included her on their lists of the most influential teenagers in the world in 2013 and 2014. Forbes also placed her on their 2014 edition of 30 Under 30; she was the youngest individual to be featured. Billboard featured her on their 21 Under 21 list in 2013, 2014, and 2015.
In the first half of 2014, Lorde performed at several music festivals, including the Laneway Festival in Sydney, the three South American editions of Lollapalooza—Chile, Argentina, Brazil—and the Coachella Festival in California. She subsequently embarked on an international concert tour, commencing in North America in early 2014. Amidst her solo activities, Lorde joined the surviving members of Nirvana to perform "All Apologies" during the band's induction ceremony at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. Band members Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl explained that they selected Lorde because her songs represented "Nirvana aesthetics" through their perceptive lyrics. Lorde also curated the accompanying soundtrack for the 2014 film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, overseeing the selection of the album's content as well as recording four tracks, including its lead single "Yellow Flicker Beat". In 2015, the track earned Lorde a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song, and won Single of the Year at the 2015 New Zealand Music Awards, marking her third consecutive win in the category. Later that year, she was featured on British electronic duo Disclosure's song "Magnets" from their 2015 album Caracal.
2016–2019: Melodrama
In January 2016, Lorde relocated to Ponsonby, an inner-city suburb of Auckland. At the 2016 Brit Awards in February, Lorde and David Bowie's final touring band gave a tribute performance of his 1971 song "Life on Mars". Pianist Mike Garson, a frequent band member for Bowie, explained that Bowie's family and management selected Lorde because he admired her and felt she was "the future of music". Her cover was widely acknowledged as one of the finest performances in tribute to Bowie. Later that year, Lorde co-wrote "Heartlines", a song by New Zealand music duo Broods from their 2016 album Conscious.
The lead single from her second studio album Melodrama, "Green Light", was released in March 2017 to critical acclaim; it was ranked as the best song of the year by NME and The Guardian. The single reached number one in New Zealand, number four in Australia, number nine in Canada, and number nineteen in the United States. The album was supported by two other singles: "Perfect Places" and a remix of "Homemade Dynamite" featuring Khalid, Post Malone and SZA. Produced mainly by Lorde and Jack Antonoff, Melodrama was released on 16 June 2017. Debuting atop the US Billboard 200 chart, the album became Lorde's first US chart topper; it also reached number one in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
Melodrama explores heartbreak and messy feelings of late adolescence, evoked by a breakup. It received widespread critical acclaim for the emotional weight of Lorde's songwriting and Antonoff's pop production styles; Metacritic placed it second on their list of the best albums of 2017 based on publications' year-end lists, behind Kendrick Lamar's Damn. Melodrama was nominated for Album of the Year at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. At the 2017 New Zealand Music Awards, the album won Album of the Year, "Green Light" won Single of the Year, and Lorde won Best Solo Artist, Best Pop Artist, the People's Choice Award and the International Achievement Award.