The Boss and Lorde came together last night, in a surprise opening to Bruce Springsteen's first New Zealand concert in 10 years.
The New Jersey rocker pulled out an acoustic guitar for a haunting rendition of Royals, the song that propelled Auckland schoolgirl Ella Yelich-O'Connor to international stardom and two Grammy awards this year.
The song's Kiwi producer, Joel Little, was in the audience and proudly tweeted a picture of the moment with the comment: "Bruce Springsteen just opened his show with a cover of Royals @lordemusic #whatislife."
Concert-goer Sanjay Patel said Springsteen changed the lyric "you can call me Queen Bee" to "you can call me King B".
Frontier Touring said the cover of Lorde was followed by a "mass singalong" as Springsteen worked through what seemed like every song from his biggest album, 1984's Born in the USA.
