30 Interesting Things You Need To Know About Lorde

By Jobs & Hire Staff Reporter

Jan 28, 2014 11:03 AM EST

Lorde's real name is Ella Yelich-O'Connor.
Lorde was born in Auckland, New Zealand on November 7, 1996. She is currently 17 years old.
Lorde's mother, Sonja Yelich, was a prize-winning New Zealand poet while father Vic O'Connor worked as a civil engineer.
She has three siblings including an older sister Jerry, younger brother Angelo and younger sister India.
At age 5, Lorde followed her friend into a drama group and discovered a love of singing and acting. She enjoyed how she had to "switch on a different side to myself and become a different me."
Lorde is of Croatian and Irish ancestry.
Lorde's mother encouraged her to read books, taking on Raymond Carver and Kurt Vonnegut at a young age.
At 14 years old, Lorde was proofreading her master's thesis for her.
Lorde began writing songs with her guitar at about 13 or 14 years old.
Yelich-O'Connor adopted her stage name due to her fascination with "royals and aristocracy." However, she felt the name Lord was too masculine so added an 'e' to make it more feminine.
Lorde attended Belmont Intermediate School.
In 2009, she and friend Louis McDonald participated in, and won, the school's talent show. After seeing her performance at the talent show, McDonald's father sent out recordings of Lorde covering Duffy's hit song "Warwick Avenue" and Pixie Lott's "Mama Do" to various talent scouts.
Lorde's song "The Love Club" from her debut EP (2013) was included on the compilation to raise funds for those affected by Typhoon Haiyan, the proceeds from the song were donated to the Philippines to the relief efforts of the Philippines Red Cross.
She grew up listening to soul musicians Etta James and Otis Redding, as well as her parents' favorite records by the likes of Cat Stevens, Neil Young and Fleetwood Mac. She cites the unusual vocals of Grimes, the band Sleigh Bells and producer SBTRKT as prominent influences for Lorde.
She wrote award-winning breakout song "Royals" at age 15.

When Lorde was 13, A&R scout Scott Maclachlan signed her to Universal and she began working with a succession of songwriters but without success. "Fundamentally I think she understood that she was going to write her own music but would ultimately need someone to help with the production side of it," said Maclachlan.
During the writing of The Love Club (2013), Lorde was particularly influenced by Kanye West and she performed a cover version of West's song "Hold My Liquor" at her Auckland concert on 7 September 2013.
She has a boyfriend. She and 24-year-old beau, James Lowe, who is of Chinese descent, were photographed in November on vacation together.
The young singer, 17, who released her debut album "Pure Heroine" this past September, took home two gold trophies for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance for chart-topping track, "Royals."
Lorde's "Royals" peaked No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Lorde is a self-identified feminist.
She's besties with Taylor Swift. At first she didn't like Swift but in a recent interview with Rolling Stone she said Taylor Swift is one of the only artists with a "real teenage voice."
Often praised for her genius lyrics, Lorde said short story writers Raymond Carver, Wells Tower, Tobias Wolff and Claire Vaye Watkins were her lyrical inspirations - particularly noting their sentence structures.
Her first-ever tour in the U.S. will start in March 2014 in Dallas.
As of July 2013, Lorde is a Year Twelve student at Takapuna Grammar School.
In December 2013 Lorde raised money for her local community in Devonport.
She prefers keeping a low profile. Lorde once said in an interview with Billboard, ""In a perfect world, I would never do any interviews and probably there would be one photo out there of me, and that would be it."
She's a huge fan of Nicki Minaj. "She's so f***king good I can't even fathom it," she once said.
Lorde is a regular teenager. She enjoys going to the beach, riding her bike, making dinner and "mucking around," as she puts it.
Lorde is the youngest Grammy winner in 26 years and also the third-youngest Grammy award winner in history.