Lorde has hit a huge music milestone with her debut single Royals. Photo / Getty Images
Lorde has hit a huge music milestone with her debut single Royals. Photo / Getty Images
Kiwi music superstar Lorde has hit a huge music milestone, with her debut single Royals surpassing 1 billion streams on Spotify.
She’s now been admitted to the streaming platform’s Billions club - a playlist of all the songs with over a billion streams. A total of 366 songs have reached this milestone so far.
As of February 2023, just two songs have hit 3 billion streams - Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You and The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights. There are 27 songs that have reached 2 billion streams.
.@lorde's "Royals" has now surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify. It's her first song to reach this milestone. pic.twitter.com/F8nF2X3rsq
Royals is the song that made Lorde famous - and it’s her first to hit this mark on Spotify. It comes ten years after the song was first released in 2013. And it’s particularly timely as she’s currently back home where it all began, and set to kick off the Aotearoa leg of her Solar Power tour in Wellington today.
The Grammy-winning artist, 26, has been hiding out in her hometown of Auckland since November, and is finally set to start the New Zealand leg of her long-awaited Solar Power tour today.
Earlier this month, she told the Herald she planned to spend her summer op shopping, fishing, swimming and eating her favourite foods. And despite the weather events in Auckland and around the country, she felt like she’d “had such a nice break after quite a big year of shows and travel”.
Mum Sonja Yelich, 47, shared the news on Twitter last night along with some photos of flowers, writing, “My daughter got married on Saturday, it was a stunning day and a stunning wedding.”
Jerry is the oldest of Lorde’s siblings, who also include Indy - who has just started releasing her own music - and Angelo.
It comes after the star postponed her Hawke’s Bay concerts due to the ongoing devastating impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle on the region.
Lorde got stuck in to help Auckland flood victims in January, posing here with MP Chlöe Swarbrick and other volunteers at Ellen Melville Hall in Auckland. Photo / via Facebook
The shows were originally scheduled to be held at Black Barn Vineyards in Havelock North on March 1 and March 2.
Lorde also shared a message for those affected by the cyclone, writing: “I would love to be there with you right now, but I can also read the room, and taking precious resources away from those who need them right now is not it.
“This is a postponement NOT a cancellation at this stage - I’m working on something, and you’ll hear from me soon.
“I’m so sorry you’re going through this. Kia kaha.”
Her first shows in Wellington tonight and tomorrow, originally scheduled to take place at Days Bay, have been shifted indoors to TSB Arena on Wellington’s waterfront.
