1996–2008: Early life Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor was born on 7 November 1996 in
Takapuna, a suburb of
Auckland, New Zealand, to poet
Sonja Yelich () 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 is the second of four children: she has an elder sister Jerry, a younger sister
India, and a younger brother Angelo. They were raised in Auckland's
North Shore suburbs of
Devonport and
Bayswater. At age five, she joined a drama group and developed
public speaking skills. She was briefly enrolled at
George Parkyn Centre, a
gifted education organisation. Sonja unenrolled her, however, citing
social development concerns. While attending Vauxhall, she placed third and first respectively in the North Shore Primary Schools' Speech competition, a national contest, in 2006 and 2007.
2009–2012: Career beginnings 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 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. In 2010, Lorde and McDonald formed a duet called "Ella & Louis" and performed covers live on a regular basis at local venues, including cafés in Auckland and the Victoria Theatre in Devonport. In 2011, UMG hired vocal coach
Frances Dickinson to give her singing lessons twice a week for a year. As she began writing songs, she learned how to "put words together" by reading
short fiction. Lorde performed her original songs for the first time at the Victoria Theatre in November 2011. While working on her music career, she attended
Takapuna Grammar School from 2010 to 2013, completing
Year 12. She later chose not to return in 2014 to attend
Year 13.
2013–2015: Pure Heroine and The Hunger Games soundtrack When Lorde and Little had finished their first collaborative effort,
The Love Club EP, Maclachlan applauded it as a "strong piece of music", but worried if the EP could profit because Lorde was obscure at the time. It peaked at number two in New Zealand and Australia. "
Royals", the EP's lead single, helped Lorde rise to prominence after it became a critical and commercial success, selling more than 10 million units worldwide. It peaked at number one on the
Billboard Hot 100, making Lorde, then 16 years old, the youngest artist to earn a number-one single in the United States since
Tiffany in 1987. The track has since been certified
diamond by the
Recording Industry Association of America. It won two
Grammy Awards for
Best Pop Solo Performance and
Song of the Year at the
56th ceremony, and was named
Single of the Year at the
2013 New Zealand Music Awards. in 2014 Lorde's debut studio album
Pure Heroine, which contained the single "Royals", was released in September 2013 to critical acclaim; The album received considerable attention for its portrayal of suburban teenage disillusionment and critiques of mainstream culture. In the United States, the album sold more than one million copies by February 2014, becoming the first debut album by a female artist since
Adele's
19 (2008) to achieve the feat.
Pure Heroine earned a Grammy nomination for
Best Pop Vocal Album and won the
2014 Taite Music Prize for the best New Zealand album of 2013; it had sold six million copies worldwide as of June 2021. Three other singles were released from the album: "
Tennis Court" reached number one in New Zealand, while "
Team" charted at number six in the United States, and "
Glory and Gore" was released exclusively to US radio. At the
2014 New Zealand Music Awards, Lorde won six awards:
Album of the Year and Best Pop Album for
Pure Heroine, Single of the Year for "Team",
Highest Selling New Zealand Single for "Royals", Best Female Solo Artist, and the
International Achievement Award. In November 2013, Lorde signed a publishing deal with
Songs Music Publishing, worth a reported US$2.5 million, after a bidding war between companies including
Sony Music Entertainment and her label UMG. The agreement gave the publisher the right to license Lorde's music for films and advertising. Later that month, Lorde was featured on the
soundtrack for the 2013 film
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, performing a cover of
Tears for Fears' 1985 song "
Everybody Wants to Rule the World".
Time included her on their lists of the most influential teenagers in the world in 2013 and 2014.
Forbes also placed her on their 2014 edition of
30 Under 30; she was the youngest individual to be featured.
Billboard featured her on their 21 Under 21 list in 2013, 2014, and 2015. In the first half of 2014, Lorde performed at several music festivals, including the
Laneway Festival in Sydney, the three South American editions of
Lollapalooza—
Chile,
Argentina,
Brazil—and the
Coachella Festival in California. She subsequently embarked on an
international concert tour, commencing in North America in early 2014. Amidst her solo activities, Lorde joined the surviving members of
Nirvana to perform "
All Apologies" during the band's induction ceremony at the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. Band members
Krist Novoselic and
Dave Grohl explained that they selected Lorde because her songs represented "Nirvana aesthetics" through their perceptive lyrics. Lorde also curated the accompanying
soundtrack for the 2014 film
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, overseeing the selection of the album's content as well as recording four tracks, including its lead single "
Yellow Flicker Beat". In 2015, the track earned Lorde a
Golden Globe nomination for
Best Original Song, and won Single of the Year at the
2015 New Zealand Music Awards, marking her third consecutive win in the category. Later that year, she was featured on British electronic duo
Disclosure's song "
Magnets" from their 2015 album
Caracal.
2016–2020: Melodrama In January 2016, Lorde relocated to
Ponsonby, an inner-city suburb of Auckland. At the
2016 Brit Awards in February, Lorde and
David Bowie's final touring band gave a tribute performance of his 1971 song "
Life on Mars". Pianist
Mike Garson, a frequent band member for Bowie, explained that Bowie's family and management selected Lorde because he admired her and felt she was "the future of music". Her cover was widely acknowledged as one of the finest performances in tribute to Bowie. Later that year, Lorde co-wrote "
Heartlines", a song by New Zealand music duo
Broods from their 2016 album
Conscious. The lead single from her second studio album
Melodrama, "
Green Light", was released in March 2017 to critical acclaim; it was ranked as the best song of the year by
NME and
The Guardian. The single reached number one in New Zealand, number four in Australia, number nine in Canada, and number nineteen in the United States. The album was supported by two other singles: "
Perfect Places" and a
remix of "
Homemade Dynamite" featuring
Khalid,
Post Malone and
SZA. Produced mainly by Lorde and
Jack Antonoff,
Melodrama was released on 16 June 2017. Debuting atop the US
Billboard 200 chart, the album became Lorde's first US chart topper; it also reached number one in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
Melodrama explores heartbreak and messy feelings of late adolescence, evoked by a breakup. It received widespread critical acclaim for the emotional weight of Lorde's songwriting and Antonoff's pop production styles;
Melodrama was nominated for
Album of the Year at the
60th Annual Grammy Awards. At the
2017 New Zealand Music Awards, the album won Album of the Year, "Green Light" won Single of the Year, and Lorde won
Best Solo Artist, Best Pop Artist, the
People's Choice Award and the International Achievement Award. Lorde co-wrote and provided background vocals for American indie pop band
Bleachers's song "
Don't Take the Money", released in March 2017. To promote
Melodrama, she embarked on the
Melodrama World Tour (2017–2018), with Khalid,
Run the Jewels,
Mitski, and
Tove Styrke as opening acts. In December 2017, Lorde cancelled her scheduled June 2018 concert in
Israel, following an online campaign by
Palestinian solidarity activists supporting the
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign. While Lorde did not explicitly indicate her reasons for the cancellation, she said that she had been unaware of the
political turmoil there. The decision was welcomed by pro-Palestine groups and criticised by pro-Israel groups.
Billboard included Lorde on their 2017 edition of 21 Under 21, while
Forbes included her in their 30 Under 30 Asia list.
2020–2024: Solar Power at the
Primavera Sound of
São Paulo, November 2022Lorde revealed on 20 May 2020, that she started working on her third studio album with Antonoff following the death of her dog. In November 2020, she announced the release of
Going South, a book documenting her January 2019 visit to
Antarctica with photos taken by photographer Harriet Were. Lorde's third studio album,
Solar Power, was released on 20 August 2021. Its acoustic,
indie folk-inspired sound was a departure from her previous
electropop albums, which polarised critics. One year after the album's release, she reflected that the reaction to
Solar Power was "really confounding" and "painful". The album peaked at number one in Australia and New Zealand. It was supported by three singles: "
Solar Power", which reached number two in New Zealand, "
Stoned at the Nail Salon", and "
Mood Ring". Lorde promoted the album on the
Solar Power Tour (2022–2023). She headlined
Primavera Sound 2022 in Spain in June, as well as the festival's Brazil edition in November 2022. Lorde released on 9 September 2021, as a companion piece to
Solar Power. The EP is sung entirely in , and was translated by Hana Mereraiha. Other translators included
Sir Tīmoti Kāretu and Hēmi Kelly. The project was led by
Dame Hinewehi Mohi. All proceeds from the album are going towards two New Zealand-based charities:
Forest & Bird and Te Hua Kawariki. In August 2023, Lorde debuted the songs "Silver Moon" and "Invisible Ink" during her concert at the
Boardmasters Festival in
Cornwall, England. She continued her festival run with performances throughout the month at
Øyafestivalen,
Sziget Festival and
Flow Festival. In March 2024, Lorde released a cover of
Talking Heads' "
Take Me to the River" as the third single from
A24 Music's tribute album ''
Everyone's Getting Involved: A Tribute to Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense''. In June, she co-wrote and featured on a remix of
Charli XCX's "
Girl, So Confusing". The two performed the track at Charli XCX's
Madison Square Garden concert in New York City and at Coachella in April 2025. The remix earned the
Aotearoa Music Award for Single of the Year. In September 2024, Jennifer Knoepfle, executive vice-president and co-head of US A&R at
Universal Music Publishing, confirmed that Lorde had signed with UMPG earlier that year, with the remix marking her first release as a UMPG songwriter.
2025–present: Virgin in 2025 In April 2025, Lorde released "
What Was That", the lead single from her fourth studio album. The song peaked at number one in New Zealand, becoming her first top-10 single in Australia and her first top-40 single on the US
Billboard Hot 100 since 2017. The album, titled
Virgin, was released in June 2025. It spawned two further singles, "
Man of the Year" and "
Hammer". It incorporates electropop and synth-pop styles that had defined Lorde's early works, and garnered generally positive reviews from critics for its emotional songwriting.
Virgin debuted at number one in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, On the day of release, she performed the album in its entirety during an unannounced set at the
2025 Glastonbury Festival. Around the time of the release, Lorde reflected on the personal transformation behind the project, noting that the album had broken her apart and "forged a new creature" out of her. Co-produced with
Jim-E Stack, the record was supported by the
Ultrasound World Tour, which comprised arena and festival performances across North America, Europe, Oceania, and South America and began in September 2025. In October 2025, during a concert at the Madison Square Garden, Lorde exclaimed "free fucking
Palestine" to show solidarity with the Palestinians. She later removed all of her songs from
Apple Music in Israel as part of the
No Music for Genocide movement to protest against
Israel's genocide in Gaza. Her deal with UMG expired in December 2025. In voice memos to fans in March 2026, she explained that she may sign another record deal, possibly with UMG, but that she needed time to experience being an independent artist. ==Artistry==