IES Álvaro Yáñez in English and Bilingual Studies: LORDE, A SINGER-SONGWRITER FROM NEW ZEALAND

We have a new contribution to the blog by one of you, the students at IES Álvaro Yáñez. As we have already said on previous occasions, this was one of the main goals we had when we decided to launch this blog. We know that it is difficult to write one of these posts, but we can also assure you that all your contributions have been great. Thanks to you all, to those who have written something so far and to those who, for the moment being, simply read some of the posts from time to time.

If I talk about Ella Maria Lani Yelich-O'Connor, it ist most likely that you won't know anything about her, but I'm pretty sure you have heard her successful single, Royals. Quite obviously, if you have heard Royals, you will know about this singer, better known by her artistic name, Lorde. 2013 has probably been like a roller-coaster for Lorde, as she started the year like an average seventeen-year-old girl, and ended it like the new artist of the year.

Lorde was born in Devonport, a very little town near Auckland, New Zealand. Her musical career started with a video sent to Universal Records, and at the age of twelve she was signing her first contract. It was at that time that she chose the name of Lorde, which was taken because she was always very interested in royalty, kings and queens, topics that appear very usually in her lyrics. (Lorde would be the "female" form for Lord)

Lorde´s debut EP (a small group of songs that are usually released separate and then are gathered together in a single album) was released when she was 15. Its name was "The Love Club" and was uploaded to SoundCloud, where everybody could download it by free. At first, it was'n quite successful, but in two week the EP had already been downloaded 60.000 times, and so Universal Records decided to put it in Itunes. This was the beginning of Lorde´s success.

The name of Lorde started to be better known in New Zealand and Australia, and her EP was ranked at the number 20-25 in many charts like the Billboard 200. The song "Royals" was the culmination of her career. In two weeks, the song was number one in more than 20 countries, and it broke the charts, making Lorde the youngest person to have ever made a number one in the billboard at only 16.

But we all knew it wasn't the end of her career. She wrote some new songs and took the old ones and put them together in "Pure Heroine" (Heroine mustn't be misunderstood, since it refers to a heroine and not to the drug, which is spelled heroin), her first album. By the end of the year it had already sold more than half a million copies around the world. Lorde also won two Grammy Awards at the categories of "Song of the Year" for "Royals" and "Best Pop solo interpretation".

Controversy is always around celebrities and Lorde is not an exception. She is very good at music and singing, but she is frequently criticized because of her style and look. Some people think that she lies about her age, since she looks older than seventeen. Moreover, Lorde has made some bitter comments about other singers. For example, she said that Selena Gómez abuses of the autotune, and that her lyrics treat women like objects. After being attacked by all the media, she also said that she is very talented and she coul improve those things.

Lorde composes her own songs, with only some help of the producers. Her lyrics talk about teenage dreams, torn-up towns, drugs and alcohol, and all the problems that a teenager can have. I feel very identified with her lyrics, and I think everybody might feel like that in some moments. Her songs are full of metaphors and double-meanings, a fact that, in my opinion, makes them very interesting. She doesn't abuse of the music to improve her voice; all the songs have a very simple melody with a piano, a drum or some synth sounds. Lorde's kind of music doesn´t fit in only one category. Her music is indie, but she has also some rap influences and she sometimes goes a little bit harder with a soft pop. She has been compared to Lana del Rey, Nicki Minaj and Birdy.