Lorde

Signed to Universal at just 13-years-old, New Zealander Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor (November 7, 1996) has been acclaimed for redefining pop music with her soulful, icy, electronic ballads and ambient, leftfield, R&B anthems. The daughter of poet Sonya Yelich, she took the name Lorde because "it sounded regal" and became a sensation in her homeland when her 2012 debut EP The Love Club produced the startling, minimal art-pop single “Royals.” Still only 16, the track went on to reach Number 1 in the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, earning comparisons with Lana Del Rey, Kate Bush, and James Blake and making Lorde one of the world's hottest new artists. Her debut album Pure Heroine, released in 2013, showed a remarkably innovative, literate, and elegant young talent and went on to reach number 3 in the US charts, selling more than 1.5 million copies by the year's end and earning her a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album. In 2014, Lorde recorded the track “Yellow Flicker Beat,” which was used in the soundtrack for the blockbuster film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 as well as contributing to several other tracks for the film. She took a step back from the limelight to focus on writing her second album, which she announced would be released in 2017 with the title Melodrama. A more mature and introspective effort, Melodrama debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard 200 and earned Lorde a nomination for Album of the Year at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. Following a lengthy promotional tour throughout Europe and the US, she started working on her next album with producer Jack Antonoff. Preceded by its indie-folk title track, her third studio album Solar Power came out in 2021, topping the charts in New Zealand and Australia, and reaching number 5 on the Billboard 200. The following years saw Lorde stepping back into the spotlight with a surprise nod to Talking Heads on the Stop Making Sense tribute in March 2024 and a collaborative remix of Charli XCX’s “Girl, So Confusing” that launched her into surprise stage appearances at Madison Square Garden in late 2024 and Coachella in April 2025. She then returned with her electrifying synth‑pop single “What Was That” in April 2025, paving the way for her bold and introspective fourth album Virgin, released in June 2025, which explores themes of identity, bodily autonomy, and emotional rebirth.