Lorde to Rule the Greek Theatre

Fred Hernandez

On October 6 and 7, Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor will be performing at the Greek Theatre — but most of you might know the singer better by the name Lorde. Besides the obvious convenience when signing autographs, Lorde chose her stage name because of her obsession with “royals and aristocracy,” and added an “e” for a feminine touch. This comes as no surprise, as the songstress is a proud feminist and has talked considerably about challenging the image artists like Miley Cyrus and Rihanna are giving to women everywhere. Despite being strongly vocal about her beliefs, Lorde hasn’t been negatively targeted by the media.

At the ripe age of 17, Lorde became New Zealand’s answer to a crossover hit, especially as her breakout single “Royals” dominated the airwaves. A scathing indictment on the music industry and mainstream pop culture, “Royals” peaked on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart for nine consecutive weeks. Lorde was the first ever New Zealander to reach the top of the chart along with being the youngest artist to ever do so. Before achieving this unprecedented success, Lorde developed her love for singing at the age of 5 when she joined her friend’s drama group. She later worked with Universal Music Group at age 13 after being discovered by UMG A&R’s Scott Maclachlan. Lorde would go on to work with a plethora of songwriters in an attempt to find her voice and style, and with Musician/Producer Joel Little (Goodnight Nurse) things started to click. In 2012, Lorde self-released the five-song The Love Club EP as a complementary SoundCloud set and, 60,000 downloads later, UMG commercially released the EP in 2013.

Lorde’s debut album Pure Heroine was also released in 2013, and it peaked on the New Zealand and Australian charts while making it into the top five in Canada, Ireland, Norway and the U.K. “Royals” took the world by storm, winning the 2013 APRA Silver Scroll Award and two 2014 Grammys for “Best Pop Solo Performance” and “Song of the Year.” Even with rampant illegal downloading, the album managed to sell 1.5 million copies by the end of 2013. The singles “Tennis Court,” “Team,” “No Better” and “Glory and Gore” started a bidding war for her talent, and she ended up signing a deal with Sony Music Publishing for $2.5 million in return for the rights to license her music for films and advertising. In an effort to top her smashing success, Lorde began work on her second album in December 2013 and toured North America in 2014. The singer received grunge cred when she covered “All Apologies” with the remaining members of Nirvana during their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

While gossip articles have taught us that it’s hard to be famous and young, Lorde is a new breed of her own making. She has gracefully and majestically traversed across her native country into the land of opportunity with the world as her oyster.

Lorde will make her Greek Theatre debut for a two-night run on October 6 and 7 with special guest Majical Cloudz. Tickets are on sale now.