Lorde Singer-songwriter 1996
The first New Zealand solo artist to top the US Billboard chart
Few Kiwis have achieved international success at the level of Lorde; fewer still can say they shifted the landscape of pop music entirely. Ella Yelich-O'Connor first surfaced at the end of 2012 with five free songs on a mysterious Soundcloud account; all we had to go on was a regal illustration of a wild-haired young woman, swathed in gold jewellery, cradling a rodent. It wasn't long before the veil was lifted. She was revealed as a Takapuna Grammar student who had been in development with Universal Music since she was 12, and had pieced together The Love Club EP with producer Joel Little. Royals, her breakout single, blitzed its way up the charts, spending nine weeks on top of the US Billboard chart. Lorde became the youngest solo artist to achieve a number-one single in the US in 26 years. Her debut album Pure Heroine was released in 2013 to universal acclaim. Her sparse production and cinematic songwriting resonated around the world and changed people's ideas of how pop music could sound.
She went on to win Best Solo Female Performance and Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards — becoming the first Kiwi ever to win the prestigious prize. In a way that many pop stars are unable to match, Lorde's vision has always been remarkably authentic. Her work carries a singular voice and is always unmistakably hers. She demonstrated this with the gap between Pure Heroine and her 2017 sophomore record, Melodrama. Publicly stating she didn't want to rush things, she took the time to hone in on making the best record she possibly could. With Melodrama, she overcame that elusive undertaking: releasing a second album that surpassed her first. The record was widely praised as one of the best of 2017, ending up on a multitude of year-end lists.
