Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor, known professionally as Lorde (pronounced lord), is a New Zealand singer, songwriter, and record producer.
Background
Ethnicity:
Ella's mother was born to Croatian immigrants from the region of Dalmatia, while her father is of Irish descent.
Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor was born in Takapuna, Auckland on 7 November 1996, the daughter of poet Sonja Yelich (Croatian: Sonja Jelić) and civil engineer Vic O'Connor. Second of four children, she has three siblings: older sister Jerry (born 1994), younger sister India "Indy" (born 1998), and younger brother Angelo (born 2001). They were raised in the nearby suburb of Devonport, Auckland.
Education
At the age of five, Ella joined a drama group and developed public speaking skills. As a child, Lorde attended Vauxhall School and then Belmont Intermediate School in her early teens.
Career
At the age of 12 Ella was signed to a development contract with the Universal Music Group after an agent received footage of her singing at a middle-school talent show. A lifelong fascination with royalty and aristocracy inspired her stage name, although she appended an e to the end, as she felt that “Lord” was too masculine. "I started writing songs when I was 13 or 14 because I've always been a huge reader. My mum's a poet and we've always had so many books, and that's always been a big thing for me, arguably more so than music," she said.
Ella's first EP "The Love Club EP" was released in March 2013 with no major marketing or publicity, but it managed to land her at No. 1 on the New Zealand Album Chart. Single "Royals" simultaneously occupied the top spot in the singles chart - without so much as a video on YouTube. In August 2013, she became the first woman to top the Billboard Alternative Songs chart in the United States since Tracy Bonham did so in 1996.
While still riding high on the success of her extended play, Lorde was gearing up to release her first-ever full-length album "Pure Heroine". If the impressive chart performance of her EP is any indication of how the upcoming album would do, she was expected to make a notable debut on the album chart when the CD is released in September.
Lorde officially released "Pure Heroine" on September 27, 2013 through Universal Music Group, Republic Records and Lava Records. Laced with 10 songs in total, the record received highly positive reviews from music critics. It debuted at No. 1 on the official New Zealand Music Chart and the ARIA Charts, while it peaked at No. 3 on Billboard 200 chart. The album was later nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards in 2014.
After garnering much success with the album, Lorde signed a publishing deal with Songs Music Publishing in November 2013 after a bidding war between various companies including her label UMG and Sony Music Entertainment. The agreement, which was reportedly worth $2.5 million, would give the publisher the right to license Lorde's music for films and advertising. In support of "Pure Heroine", Lorde embarked on her first international tour in March 2014. The first leg of her North American tour included back-to-back shows at New York's Roseland Ballroom and big venues like Tower Theatre in Philadelphia. She later announced the Australian leg, which was kicked off in July, and the second North American leg, which was held in August.
In addition to Ella's busy schedule with the tour, Lorde headlined various festivals throughout 2014 including Laneway Festival in Sydney, Australia. She also performed at Coachella in California and Lollapalooza in Chicago, where Rolling Stone deemed her performance as the best segment of the festival.
In June 2014, Lorde said that the follow-up to "Pure Heroine" was in its early stages. She claimed that the upcoming record was "totally different" from her debut album. "I'm working on stuff quite tentatively. It's definitely still at the beginning and yeah, it's totally different," she told BBC Newsbeat at that time. While she was busy preparing for new materials for the next album, Lorde released "Yellow Flicker Beat" on September 29, 2014 as the first single from the soundtrack of "The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay, Part 1".
While there was a few reports about Lorde's much-anticipated sophomore album, the singer gave update that the record was already written and they're still in production stages. She also teased fans with a cryptic Instagram post, which seemingly found her shooting a music video, back in August 2016. In November, Lorde posted on Facebook a note stating that she was gearing up to release her new album, and she was about to "show you the new world."
After teasing fans with cryptic Instagram posts and a mysterious ad, Lorde released "Green Light" on March 3, 2017. Co-written by Lorde, Jack Antonoff and Joel Little, the electro-pop song was mainly inspired by Lorde's first heartbreak. Released through Universal Music New Zealand, the song is the lead single off her upcoming sophomore album "Melodrama", which is set to be released on June 16. A week after releasing "Green Light", Lorde unleashed a new song called "Liability". She performed both songs for the first time on "Saturday Night Live" on March 11.
Politics
In December 2017, Lorde cancelled her scheduled June concert in Israel following an online campaign by Palestinian solidarity activists supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.This online campaign included an open letter published on The Spinoff online magazine by both the Jewish New Zealander activist Justine Sachs and the Palestinian New Zealander activist Nadia Abu-Shanab urging Lorde to cancel her Israel tour, citing "Israeli government's policies of oppression, ethnic cleansing, human rights violations, occupation and apartheid." Lorde also issued a statement on Twitter thanking her fans for educating her about Israel–Palestine, and saying "I'm not too proud to admit I didn't make the right call [by booking this tour]."
Lorde's cancellation of her Israeli tour was welcomed by Palestinian activists and supporters including the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and the New Zealand Jewish pro-boycott group Dayenu; of which Sachs was a founding member. By contrast, Lorde's actions were criticised by pro-Israel groups and supporters including Shalom.Kiwi and the actress Roseanne Barr. The Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev and the Israeli Ambassador to New Zealand Itzhak Gerbeg also issued statements urging Lorde to reconsider her cancellation; with the latter inviting Lorde to meet him. American rabbi Shmuley Boteach paid for a full-page advertisement in the Washington Post, with the headline "Lorde and New Zealand ignore Syria to attack Israel", and called her a "bigot", noting that she will be touring Russia despite Putin's support for the Syrian regime.
Views
Lorde's music has been described as art pop, dream pop, indie pop, electropop, and indie-electro. Multiple reviewers also note the influences of hip hop and R&B on Lorde's releases. In a review for Consequence of Sound, Jon Hadusek details the minimal production on Lorde's music "allows [her] to sing any melody she wants, layering them over one another to create a choral effect". Jason Lipshutz of Billboard shares that her works features deep bass rumbles, lilting loops and programmed beats. Paul Lester from The Guardian compares Lorde's music to that of Sky Ferreira and Eliza Doolittle.
Lorde is an alto; however, on "Royals", she performs with a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Lorde writes her music vocally and does not play musical instruments on her records or onstage. She states that her main focus is her voice, elaborating, "I don't play any instruments, so my voice needs to have the focus. My vocal-scape is really important." PopMatters's Evan Sawdey describes Lorde's vocals as being "unique and powerfully intriguing". Jason Lipshutz of Billboard praises her vocals for being "dynamic, smoky and restrained". Lester describes Lorde's voice as "sweet, sultry and sour", while James Lachno from The Daily Telegraph describes it as "twitchy electro". In an article for The A.V. Club, Kevin McFarland writes that "[Lorde's] voice is the alpha and omega of her talent. She has the presence and vocal development of singers more than twice her age. Her voice isn't booming or overpowering, but rather mystifying and alluring, both floating on its own in a sea of reverb and digital blips and awash in an army of chorused overdubs." Noisey wrote that her melodic structures follow the mixolydian mode which is a common scale used in "blues-based and alternative rock". This sets her songs apart from those in pop music as they do not fit a major or minor chord.
In a November 2013 interview with Q, Lorde expressed frustration about "certain things about music": "There are a lot of shock tactics these days. People trying to outdo each other, which will probably culminate in two people fucking on stage at the Grammys." Following the release of Pure Heroine, she also described herself as a "sex-positive" person.
Quotations:
“A lot of musicians think they can do pop, and the ones who don’t succeed are the ones who don’t have the reverence - who think it’s just a dumb version of other music. You need to be awe-struck.”
“Lou Reed taught me that unflinching honesty is a very powerful tool in song writing.”
“Don’t be afraid. Be the kind of person your mother warned you about.”
“We're so happy, even when we're smiling out of fear.”
“Maybe the internet raised us, or maybe people are jerks.”
“I don't get why people say the sky's the limit when we have footprints on the moon.”
“If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough.”
“Don't you think that is boring how people talk”
Personality
Lorde's on-stage persona, particularly her dancing, have attracted a wide range of critics and admirers since her rise in fame. Aimee Cliff from The Fader wrote that Lorde should be celebrated for her dancing as it "more freeform and spontaneous" than structured choreography, and it "speaks an entirely different expressive language". Sara Houston, a British dance academic at the University of Roehampton echoed Cliff's statements, saying Lorde's "stage presence [is] more impactful than the average pop performance," which can come across as "uncontrived" and "unchoreographed". Houston also said that Lorde's "slightly wild movements" and the way her body "bends" over lends a "sense of freedom".
Quotes from others about the person
Billboard: "Lorde has inspired a slew of sound-alike artists, essentially creating a genre and potentially becoming a voice for a generation."