Lorde

Lorde is a New Zealand singer and songwriter, one of the defining voices of alternative pop since "Royals". She was born Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor on 7 November 1996 in Takapuna, a suburb of Auckland. Her mother, the poet Sonja Yelich (Jelić in Croatian), was born to Croatian immigrants from Dalmatia, her father is of Irish descent, and Lorde holds both New Zealand and Croatian citizenship. That Croatian family line is why she is on Muzika-Balkan.

She grew up in Devonport and Bayswater on Auckland's North Shore and in 2016 moved to Ponsonby in inner Auckland. Her fourth album, Virgin, was shaped among other things by her move to New York City. As a schoolgirl she sang covers with her friend Louis McDonald, which led Universal Music to sign her for development, and from late 2011 she wrote songs with the producer Joel Little.

The Love Club EP, first given away for free in 2012, carried "Royals". The song topped the Billboard Hot 100, making her, at 16, the youngest artist with a US number one since 1987, and won two Grammy Awards, for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance. Her debut album Pure Heroine (2013) followed with "Tennis Court" and "Team", and she curated the soundtrack of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1.

Melodrama (2017), made with Jack Antonoff and led by "Green Light", went to number one in the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand and was nominated for the Grammy for Album of the Year. Solar Power (2021) turned to an acoustic, indie folk sound, and its companion EP Te Ao Mārama was sung entirely in Māori. Virgin (2025), with "What Was That", "Man of the Year" and "Hammer", went to number one in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Her awards include two Grammys, two Brit Awards and 20 New Zealand (Aotearoa) Music Awards. The playlist gathers her songs from all four albums.