Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor, 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.
real name: Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor
labels: Universal Music Group, Lava Records, Republic Records
genres: art pop, dream pop, electronica, indie pop
awards: Aotearoa Music Award for Best Solo Artist, Billboard 21 Under 21
plays: voice
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Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor was born on 7 November 1996 in Takapuna, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, to poet Sonja Yelich (Croatian: Jelić) 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 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 grew up listening to American jazz and soul musicians Billie Holiday, Sam Cooke, Etta James, and Otis Redding, whose music she admires for "harvesting their suffering". She also listened to her parents' favourite records by musicians including Cat Stevens, Neil Young, and Fleetwood Mac in her early years. During production of Pure Heroine, Lorde cited influences from electronic music producers, including SBTRKT, Grimes, and Sleigh Bells, impressed by "their vocals in a really interesting way, whether it might be chopping up a vocal part or really lash or layering a vocal." She also stated that she was inspired by the initially hidden identities of Burial and the Weeknd, explaining, "I feel like mystery is more interesting." Other...
Music critics highlighted Lorde's pop sound as unconventional and her songwriting as introspective. In a 2017 interview with NME, she said, "I don't think about staying in my genre lane." Her music primarily incorporates electropop, alternative pop, synth-pop, and indie pop.
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"Yellow Flicker Beat" is a song by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde released on 29 September 2014 as the lead single from the soundtrack for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 by Republic Records. Written by Lorde and Joel Little and produced by Little and Paul Epworth, it is as an art pop and electropop song with minimal synthesisers, drums, and vocal samples in its production.
Music critics compared its instrumentation style to the singer's work on her 2013 debut album Pure Heroine. The track's lyrics refer to the rise of Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of The Hunger Games (2008–2010) young adult dystopian novel trilogy.
"Yellow Flicker Beat" was written by Lorde (credited under her birth-name Ella Yelich-O'Connor) and Joel Little and produced by Little and Paul Epworth. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com, the track is composed in the key of A minor and follows the chord progression Am–Dm–Am–E and in the common time signature. The song moves at a tempo of 96 beats per minute, and Lorde's vocals span a range of E♭3 to E♭5. "Yellow Flicker Beat" is an electropop and art pop song, with minimal synthesisers, drums, and vocal samples in its production.
"Yellow Flicker Beat" received mostly positive reviews from music critics. Writing for Spin, Carley praised the song's metaphorical and mature lyrics. Rolling Stone writer Ryan Reed praised the track's production, writing that it "fits comfortably within the 17-year-old's sonic wheelhouse", while Billboard editor Steven J. Horowitz opined that Lorde's vocals complemented the song's "synth-blotched beat" well, and rated it three and a half out of five stars. Conversely, Chris Schulz of The New Zealand Herald wrote that "Yellow Flicker Beat" sounded too similar to Lorde's previous releases and lamented the lack of a catchy hook and chorus. Echoing Schulz's statements, Lydia Jenkin, also from the Herald, noted that while its sound was...
The music video for "Yellow Flicker Beat" was directed by Emily Kai Bock, and was released on 7 November 2014 at midnight (NZDT), when Lorde turned eighteen years old. Lorde contacted Bock via email after they met through Devon Welsh, the frontman of Majical Cloudz, her opening band on the Pure Heroine Tour. The video was filmed in New Jersey and at Park Avenue Armory in New York during New York Fashion Week in between shows by American designers Marc Jacobs and Tommy Hilfiger. Lorde's production team built each set and shot the video in one day. The concept of the video was inspired by a 1976 interview from The Dick Cavett Show with American actress Mae West.
"Liability" is a song recorded by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde, from her second studio album Melodrama (2017). Lorde co-wrote and co-produced the track with Jack Antonoff.
It was released on 10 March 2017, by Lava and Republic Records as the album's first promotional single. It is a pop piano ballad, which is accompanied with organs and guitar strums in the background.
Lorde told a crowd at a secret iHeartRadio concert she held in Los Angeles in August 2017 that "Liability" was inspired by a night she became "overcome with anger and emotion". She walked 8 to 10 km (5.0 to 6.2 mi) before ordering an Uber to take her home. She cried as she listened to Rihanna's song "Higher" from her 2016 album Anti because of a feeling of "being 'too much' for somebody." Self-proclaimed as her first ballad, Lorde described the songwriting process of "Liability" as "therapeutic" as she felt that she said everything about herself that could hurt her "coming from other people".
Lorde recorded "Liability" in three different locations across the United States. She started recording the song at Electric Lady Studios, in New York, with Jack Antonoff and assistance from Barry McCready and Eric Eylands in engineering. Lorde and Antonoff both worked at Rough Customer Studio, in Brooklyn Heights, New York, a joint publishing venture between Sony/ATV and Antonoff. Recording concluded at Conway Recording Studios, in Los Angeles, California. Tom Elmhirst mixed the song at Electric Lady Studios, with assistance from Brandon Bost and Joe Visciano. Laura Sisk served as the sound engineer. It was published under the licenses of Songs Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Songs LLC, and Ducky Donath Music (BMI).
"Liability" received critical acclaim from music critics, with many commending the song's lyrical content and Lorde's vocal delivery, and was called one of the standout tracks on the record. Jon Blistein of Rolling Stone described the song as a "short but poignant song that finds Lorde grappling with fame and how it can change friendships and relationships." Billboard writer Andrew Unterberger commended its lyrics and Lorde's delivery, calling the song "an absolute jaw-dropper." Spin editor Anna Gaca praised Lorde for turning the track into a "poetic meditation on the perils of intimacy". Pitchfork expressed that the song was a "powerful counterpart to "Green Light" that shows how intensely Lorde peers into herself on her second record."
"Perfect Places" is a song by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde. It was released on 1 June 2017 through Universal Music New Zealand as the second single, following "Green Light" (2017), from her second album, Melodrama (2017).
Lorde co-wrote and co-produced the song with Jack Antonoff and Andrew Wyatt, with additional production from Frank Dukes. "Perfect Places" was described as an atmospheric electropop song that blends bass, synths and drum machine beats.
When speaking to The New York Times about the song's composition, Lorde said that it "lived a million times." She added that both she and Jack Antonoff tried "different tempos, used different voicings, took it half time, made it weird and druggy," but nothing worked. One of their issues was how much depth there was to the song. Searching for a solution, Lorde thought of deleting its pre-chorus, and did so saying the track then "follow[ed] a much simpler trajectory."
Lorde and Antonoff wrote and co-produced the song with production handled mainly by Andrew Wyatt and Frank Dukes. "Perfect Places" is an atmospheric electropop song that blends bass, synths and drum machine beats. Sarah Grant of Rolling Stone wrote that the verse structures are "punctuated with throbbing syncopation, giving the song a dark, R&B sensibility." Spin noted that the track's "stock dramatic chord movement was backed by church-bell and piano knells." According to sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, "Perfect Places" is set in common time with a "moderate" tempo of 105 beats per minute. The song is composed in the key of E major, with Lorde's vocal range between the notes of C3 and C5.
"Perfect Places" received critical acclaim from music critics, with several comparing the song to her 2013 single "Team". Jenn Pelly of Pitchfork awarded it "Best New Track", writing that the song "slides in on a spacious, charcoal beat à la Pure Heroine's 'Team,' but reality has grown crueler since then." Pelly further described Lorde as a "songwriter who still vividly celebrates out-of-step self-possession." Winston Cook-Wilson of Spin compared the lyrics' setting to "Green Light" and added that the song had "a charm [in its] imperfectness," in that Lorde does not know where she is headed. Wilson said the track's main message is that there is "no perfect place" even when "pursuing it leaves you feeling just as lost [...] as you were at...
The accompanying music video for "Perfect Places" was directed by Grant Singer, who also directed the visual for "Green Light". The video was shot in Jamaica. It was released on Lorde's YouTube channel on 3 August 2017.
"Team" is a song by the New Zealand singer and songwriter Lorde, taken from her debut studio album, Pure Heroine (2013). The song was released on 13 September 2013 as the album's third single in Australia and New Zealand by Universal Music New Zealand, and as the second single from the album in the United States and the United Kingdom by Lava and Republic Records.
The track was written by Lorde and Joel Little and produced by Little, with additional production from Lorde herself. Musically, "Team" is a hybrid of alternative pop and electro hip-hop featuring synthesiser, bass and snare drum instrumentation over a handclap-based beat.
"Team" was written by Lorde and Joel Little while Lorde was travelling the world. The track was recorded, produced and mixed by Little at his Golden Age Studios in Morningside, Auckland, with Lorde providing additional production. The song was produced using the software Pro Tools. On 13 September 2013 "Team" was leaked, justifying an earlier rush out release. Within hours the audio was uploaded on YouTube and Universal Music New Zealand released the digital download single for sale in Australia and New Zealand. The track was sent to US modern rock radio on 30 September 2013, and to US contemporary hit radio on 19 November 2013 by Lava and Republic Records. "Team" was also sent to US rhythmic contemporary radio on 6 January 2014.
"Team" received critical acclaim from music critics. Brenna Ehrlich from MTV News lauded it as an "insanely catchy jam". The A.V. Club critic Kevin McFarland labelled "Team" as a "club-ready" and "sparkly thumper", while Nathan Jolly from The Music Network simply described it "interesting". John Murphy, in his review of Pure Heroine for musicOMH, commended the lyrics "I'm kinda over getting told to throw my hands up in the air" for being catchy. Marlow Stern writing for The Daily Beast listed "Team" as the fifth best song of 2013. In 2019, Uproxx named the song the thirteenth best song of the 2010s.
The music video for "Team" was directed by Young Replicant. Filmed at the disused Red Hook Grain Terminal in Red Hook, Brooklyn, the video was inspired by Lorde's dream of "teenagers in their own world, a world with hierarchies and initiations, where the boy who was second in command had acne on his face, and so did the girl who was Queen". The director explained that Lorde was one of the "kids who have a unique look", which fit the clip's "sad story" concept.
On 17 October 2025, Palestinian-Canadian singer Nemahsis released an official cover of "Team", along with a music video in memory of Palestinian journalists Saleh al-Jafarawi and Anas Al-Sharif. The cover is a "stripped-down rendition", with a slower tempo and featuring the piano. The official cover came two years after Nemhasis shared a video of herself singing "Team" on social media, paired with images of the Gaza strip before and after Israeli bombardments in 2023. The video was reposted by Lorde with the caption "She speaks through me; I speak through her."
"Ribs" is a song by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde, from her debut studio album Pure Heroine (2013). Universal Music Group (UMG) released it as a promotional single on 30 September 2013.
Written and produced by Lorde and Joel Little, "Ribs" is an electronica, indietronica and electropop song discussing Lorde's stress over aging.
"Ribs" was written by Lorde—credited under her birth-name Ella Yelich-O'Connor—and Joel Little who also handled production, engineering, instrumentation and mixing. It was recorded at Little's Golden Age Studios in Auckland, New Zealand. On 30 September 2013, Universal Music issued "Ribs" as a promotional single on the iTunes Store.
"Ribs" received favourable reviews from music critics on its release. Mike Wass of Idolator praised the song's "vulnerability" and called it an "obtuse offering". Lindsay Zoladz of Pitchfork opined that "Ribs" was the best song Lorde had written so far. Pretty Much Amazing wrote a mixed review of "Ribs", describing it as a song with "slower, driving beats" that go nowhere. While the publication praised its "dark and cold" chorus, it was also critical of the "same stacked vocals, hypnotic percussion, and synthesized production" that made the track repetitive. Evan Sawdey of PopMatters called it one of the album's highlights, with the lyrics describing a "specific mood and atmosphere". Sawdey also compared the "steady club beat" that plays...
"Royals" is the debut single by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde, included in her debut extended play (EP) The Love Club EP (2012) and debut studio album Pure Heroine (2013). Lorde wrote the song with producer Joel Little.
"Royals" is a minimalist art pop and electropop song with influences of hip hop, R&B, and indie pop. The track's lyrics critique the sumptuous lifestyle presented in songs and music videos by popular musicians, making them appear like modern-day royalty.
In 2009, A&R representative Scott MacLachlan of Universal Music Group (UMG) discovered 12-year-old singer Lorde when he saw footage of her performing at a school talent show in Auckland, New Zealand. At age 13, Lorde began writing songs. In December 2011, after several unsuccessful sessions with songwriters and producers, MacLachlan paired Lorde with Joel Little, a former singer and guitarist of the New Zealand pop-punk band Goodnight Nurse. Her vocal performance and songwriting abilities impressed Little, who composed songs with musical structures that were based on her lyrics.
Lorde self-released "Royals" for free download in conjunction with The Love Club EP on SoundCloud on 22 November 2012. She released the EP for no cost because people her age are less likely to have access to a credit card. The song garnered an immediate reaction on social media and that December, "Royals" had its first radio broadcast on New Zealand radio station George FM. On 8 March 2013, UMG removed "Royals" from SoundCloud and released it to online stores in New Zealand and Australia. Lava and Republic Records released it to US radio on 3 June 2013.
"Royals" is as an art pop, electropop, and alternative pop song that incorporates elements of electronic music, and draws influence from R&B and indie pop. Its instrumentation consists of finger snaps, bass, percussion, and a hip hop beat. The track's low-fidelity production is enhanced by synthesisers and Pro Tools software. Its synth-influenced sound was compared to Purity Ring and Noah "40" Shebib.
The accompanying music video for "Royals" was directed by Joel Kefali and was released on Lorde's YouTube channel on 12 May 2013. In an interview with The Huffington Post, Lorde said the video's concept was to show how teenage life can be "so mundane and so boring." Lorde told the same publication in a later interview she felt her presence in the video was unnecessary, saying; "With pop music and pop musicians, you know everything about everyone all the time, particularly their physical appearance. With female musicians that's made a big thing of and I think people, certainly with me, have appreciated a bit of mystery."
"Glory and Gore" is a song by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde from her debut studio album, Pure Heroine (2013). The song was released on 11 March 2014 as the album's fourth and final single by Lava Records and Republic Records.
The track was written by Lorde and its producer, Joel Little. "Glory and Gore" is an electropop song influenced by chillwave and hip hop music.
As with the rest of Pure Heroine, "Glory and Gore" was written by Lorde and Joel Little, recorded at Golden Age Studios and produced, mixed and engineered by Little. "Glory and Gore" is a chillwave and hip hop-influenced electropop ballad, instrumented by pulsing synthesisers.
In a review of Pure Heroine, Larry Day from The 405 called the track "single-worthy". Billboard's Jason Lipshutz called Lorde's vocals during the song's hook "contagious". Jon Hadusek of Consequence of Sound wrote that "Glory and Gore" did not fit in with the minimal production found in the majority of Pure Heroine. Pitchfork's Lindsay Zoladz criticised the song for having too many lyrics forced into each line. John Murphy from MusicOMH was critical of the latter half of Pure Heroine, writing "by the time 'Glory and Gore' and 'Still Sane' roll around, the template's starting to sound a bit tired."