Lorde's Hunger Games guest list

Kiwi singer Lorde.

The much-anticipated soundtrack to The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 comes out in New Zealand tomorrow - the first territory in the world to receive it, ahead of the film's release worldwide next week.

It's much-anticipated because Lorde was given the job of assembling it, and when contributing acts and track list were released in October, it certainly grabbed everyone's attention.

Along with two new tracks written by Lorde (Yellow Flicker Beat and Ladder Song), and Lorde collaborations with Stromae, Pusha T, Q-Tip, and Haim (Meltdown), the Chemical Brothers and Miguel (This Is Not a Game), and Diplo and Ariana Grande (All My Love), there are also tracks from Chvrches, Tove Lo, Bat for Lashes, Raury, Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon with Charlie XCX, Grace Jones, Tinashe, and a remix of Yellow Flicker Beat by Kanye West (Flicker).

The 18-year-old told Rolling Stone magazine how she got involved with her curatorial role.

"Everyone my age read the books and saw the films. I got a call: 'You've been asked to write the end-credit song.' But I wanted ownership in the process. They came back: 'Would you like to do the soundtrack?' I was like, 'Uh, that would work.' "

She describes Miguel as "the best possible person with vocal melodies that I know", Kanye West as "so private I feel weird talking about how he does stuff. I feel lucky to even be in a room with him", and Grace Jones as "this high priestess presiding over us all", but she was also keen to involve lesser known artists who she'd recently discovered, like Raury and Tinashe.

Watch the music video for Yellow Flicker Beat by Lorde:

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"They're artists I heard on YouTube and had 10,000 hits. I thought what they were doing was cool and could be taken to a different, interesting place."

In her recent Billboard cover story, she described how the soundtrack was put together while she was on tour, how she would grab a few hours each night after a show to work on it.

"I've washed my hair before we started moving, taken my dinner with me into my bunk and worked for another four hours."

Lorde, Natalie Dormer, Jennifer Lawrence and Elizabeth Banks at the Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 premiere. Photo / AP

She also explains how the Hollywood studio in charge of the franchise, Lionsgate, basically handed her creative control, and left her to make contact with the musicians she wanted to work with, but how she was conscious that it didn't come off just sounding like her own personal mix tape.

"It would've been selfish for me to make ambient house music," she says, laughing. "With a film like that, everyone likes it, not just people like me."

- TimeOut