Lorde

Lorde, born Ella Yelich-O’Connor in 1996, grew up in Takapuna, a suburb of Auckland. Her mother, a poet, got her reading widely, and Lorde names those books as an influence on her lyrics. She picked her stage name out of a fascination with royalty and aristocracy, adding an “e” to “Lord” because it felt too masculine.

Universal signed her young, and at 15 she began working with producer Joel Little. In November 2012 she put her first EP on SoundCloud as a free download. It was downloaded 60,000 times before the label released it properly. Royals went to number one in the US and won two Grammys, including Song of the Year. The album Pure Heroine (2013) was noticed for its picture of suburban teenage boredom and its digs at mainstream culture.

With producer Jack Antonoff she made Melodrama (2017), about a break-up and the messy feelings of late adolescence; it was nominated for Album of the Year. After the folkier Solar Power (2021) she went back to electronic sounds on Virgin in 2025.

Start with Pure Heroine: minimal electropop with a hip-hop backbone. Then play Green Light, the first single from Melodrama, which The Guardian and NME both named the best song of 2017.