Lorde

aka Ella Yelich-O’Connor


There’s Beyonce. There’s Kimbra and Robyn, there’s Bjork. Then there’s the Holy 80s Triumvirate: Prince, Madonna, Bowie (okay, technically not Bowie, but he floats above the rulebook). In 2013 New Zealand added Lorde to the gallery of One Name Stars. Like all great millennial pop discoveries, one week she wasn’t there, the next her name was pinging on phones and dropped in conversations.

Ella Yelich-O’Connor chose her stage name because she was fascinated by royalty and lists of long-gone kings and queens. She was born 7 November 1996, the second child of Sonia and Victor: a poet and an engineer who encouraged their four kids to be curious and creative and provided ample opportunities to let this happen. “Yelich” comes from her mother’s Croatian heritage; Dad provided some Irish blood. 

Ella Yelich-O'Connor (Lorde) and Louis at Devonstock - Auckland, 2010. 
Photo credit: Michael Cranna, speculator.co.nz
Lorde - Royals (2013)
Lorde with Jack Antonoff, who produced and co-wrote several tracks on the Melodrama album. 
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
Lorde - Team (2013)
Lorde soundchecks with dance troupe, 2018
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
Lorde performs at the Bonaroo Festival, June 2017
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
Poster for the Australian dates of Lorde's 2013 Pure Heroine tour. 
Lorde's Grammy award and stage attire form part of the Volume exhibition, Auckland War Memorial Museum, 2016
Bruce Springsteen covers 'Royals', Auckland, 2014
Lorde - Tennis Court (2013)
Lorde - Royals (2013, US version)
Waiata Anthems - Lorde excerpt (2022)
Also on the lineup for the “North America Dance” of Lorde's Melodrama World Tour in 2017 were Run the Jewels, Tove Styrke, and Mitski
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
Lorde - Yellow Flicker Beat (from Hunger Games, 2014)
Lorde - Pure Heroine (2013)
The artwork for the remix of Lorde's Homemade Dynamite, which featured guest vocals by Khalid, Post Malone and SZA. 
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
Lorde and Taylor Swift, February 2014
Photo credit: taylorswift.wikia.com
Lorde performs at Coachella festival, California, 2017
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
Lorde on the edge of the stage, April 2017
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
A few days after 'Royals' reached No.1 in the US charts, on 6 November 2013 Lorde met New Zealand novelist Eleanor Catton in a New York hotel. Catton, born in Canada and based in New Zealand since she was six, had just been awarded the Man Booker prize for her book 'The Luminaries'. 
Photo credit: Gemma Gracewood
Lorde - Solar Power (2021)
Lorde and her audience at a concert in California, 2018
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
Te Ao Mārama, Lorde's EP of songs from Solar Power sung in te reo, 2021. The artwork is Rei Hamon's 'Serene', re-coloured. 
Lorde performs on her 2017 tour. 
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
Lorde - Perfect Places (2017)
NY Times - Diary of a Song: Solar Power: How Lorde Grew Up, Embraced Guitars and Made a Summer Song.
Lorde - Fallen Fruit (2021)
Lorde at Laneway, Auckland, 2014
Photo credit: Jackson Perry
Lorde on the cover of Clash magazine 2013
Photo credit: Clash
Lorde on the cover of Elle magazine for its "women in music" issue, June 2017. Photo by Mark Seliger
Photo credit: Elle
Lorde - Green Light (2017)
Artwork for the cover of Lorde's Melodrama album, by Sam McKinniss, 2017. 
Lorde in a behind the scenes still from the video shoot for Yellow Flicker Beat, her track from the hit movie Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
Watch: Lorde in the 2009 Intermediate Schools Battle of the Bands
Lorde, "making angel faces on set", 2013. 
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
Lorde at Coachella, April 2017.
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
Lorde performs at Auckland's Laneway festival, 2014
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
Lorde - Solar Power (2021)
Lorde, the day her Melodrama album went No.1 in the United States, 27 June 2017
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
A US fan offers Lorde a bridge over troubled water, 2018.
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
Lorde makes the cover of Rolling Stone for the second time, 1 June 2017.
Photo credit: Rolling Stone
Top of the world, ma: Lorde and novelist Eleanor Catton in New York, 6 November 2013. Lorde had just reached No.1 in the US charts for 'Royals' and Catton was recently awarded the Man Booker Prize. Lorde is reading Anne Carson's poetry collection 'Glass, Irony, and God' - a gift from Catton. The moment was captured by Lorde's mother.
Photo credit: Sonja Yelich
Lorde - Mood Ring (2021)
Rolling Stone: Lorde & David Byrne in Conversation, October 2021
Lorde wears a Schiaparelli top on the cover of US Vogue, October 2021. 
Photo credit: Théo de Gueltzl/Vogue
Lorde, backstage, March 2018
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
Lorde makes her debut on the cover of Rolling Stone, 30 January 2014. 
Photo credit: Rolling Stone
Lorde and lightshow, 2018 tour. 
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
Joel Little and Ella Yelich-O’Connor (Lorde) receive the award for 'Royals' being the most-performed work overseas in 2013-2014, presented by Mike Chunn, former Apra NZ head of operations. 
Lorde - Stoned at the Nail Salon (2021)
Lorde scoots backstage, 2018
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
Lorde says farewell at the end of her US tour, April 2018.
Photo credit: Lorde Facebook collection
Becoming Lorde (2013)
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