Lorde

Lorde was a New Zealand-born pop singer who achieved international success in 2013 with her catchy debut single, "Royals." Born Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor on November 7, 1996 in Auckland, New Zealand, Lorde was raised in an artistic family - her mother was the renowned New Zealand poet Sonja Yelich. Lorde, who added the "e" to the end of her stage name to make it sound more feminine, discovered her love of acting and singing at the age of 5 while taking part in a drama group at her local elementary school. She continued to sing and act in and around Davenport, a suburb of Auckland, over the next several years, thus honing her craft while performing in front of live audiences. Lorde's first major break came at the age of 13 when she won a singing competition at her school. As a result, Lorde was discovered by a Universal talent scout, who subsequently signed the 13-year-old singer to the esteemed music label. Lorde continued to sing and perform over the next four years, while also having begun to write her own songs on guitar. However, it wasn't until she was paired up with producer and songwriter Joel Little that her music career really took off. Together, Little and Lorde wrote three songs within a week, one of which was the spookily catchy minimalist pop "Royals." Initially released for free on the digitally sharing site SoundCloud in November 2012, Lorde eventually pulled the song from the site, due to its overwhelmingly positive audience response, and released "Royals" on her debut EP, The Love Club, in May 2013. Within weeks "Royals" was the Number 1 song in America, where it stayed for nine weeks, making her the first artist from New Zealand to achieve such a feat, as well as the youngest pop singer to hit Number 1 in over a quarter century. Lorde's debut album, Pure Heroine, was equally well-received when it was released in September 2013, shooting up to the top of the Billboard charts, while earning a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album. Lorde received three additional nods at the 2014 Grammy Awards, taking home the awards for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance for "Royals." In addition to her massive success with "Royals," Lorde also covered the classic Tears for Fears song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" for the soundtrack to "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" (2013).