History of Lorde

This is a compact, detailed history of Lorde. She was born in 1996 in New Zealand. She chased her dreams of becoming a singer and was signed to UMG in 2011, and was paired up with Joel Little the same year. She released her debut EP, The Love Club, in early 2013. Later that year she released her debut studio album, Pure Heroine, in September. She embarked on a tour, and won a number of awards. She began writing her sophomore album in 2014 and released her lead single "Green Light" in 2017 to promote the new record. This single was followed by the two promotional singles "Liability" and "Sober", and the second single, "Perfect Places". Melodrama was released in June 2017 and she is set to embark on another world tour to promote it.

## Early Years

### 1996 - 2011

November 7, 1996 - Lorde is borne to Sonja Yelich and Vic O'Connor.

Around 2003 - Ella is encouraged to read a variety of books, and reads *Feed* by M.T. Anderson at age 6.

Around 2004 - 2007 (Exact dates unknown) - Ella begins to take public speaking skills and joins a drama club.

Sometime in 2009 - Ella and her friend Louis McDonald won the Belmont Intermediate School Annual Talent show as a duo.

August 13, 2009 - The duo are invited for a talk on Jim Mora's *Afternoons*show on Radio New Zealand. They preform covers of Pixie Lott's "Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh)" and Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody" there.

Sometime in 2009 - McDonald's father Ian sends both his home audio recording of Ella and Louis McDonald covering Duffy's song "Warwick Avenue" and his home video recording of the pair singing Pixie Lott's "Mama Do" to Universal Music Group (UMG)'s A&R Scott Maclachlan.

Sometime in 2009 - Maclachlan signs Ella to UMG for development.

Sometime in 2011 - UMG hires a vocal couch, Frances Dickinson, to give Lorde voice lessons twice a week for one year. During this time, she begins to write songs and is set up with a succession of singers, but without success.

December, 2011 - MacLachlan pairs Lorde with Joel Little, a songwriter, record producer, and former Goodnight Nurse lead singer. They begin writing songs for "The Love Club EP" there.

## Rise to Fame

### 2012 - 2014

November, 2012 - Ella self-releases the EP through her SoundCloud account, and finally adopts the name Lorde.

March, 2013 - UMG decides to commercially release the record for sales in March 2013. The EP debuts on the record charts of New Zealand and Australia at number 2.

June, 2013 - "Royals" gets released as a single, along with "Tennis Court".

September 13, 2013 - "Team" gets released as a single.

September 27, 2013 - Lorde releases her debut studio album, "Pure Heroine".

November, 2013 - Lorde signs a publishing deal with Songs Music Publishing, worth a reported US$2.5 million, after a bidding war between various companies, including Sony Music Entertainment and her label UMG.

Late 2014 - Lorde begins a relationship with James Lowe and wins two Grammy awards.

December, 2014 - Lorde announces she is starting to write material for her second album.

## Sophomore studio album

### 2015 - 2017

Sometime in 2015 - Lorde is featured on "Magnets", a track on Disclosure's second studio album *Caracal.* She later performs this on SNL.

Sometime in 2016 - Lorde gave a tribute to David Bowie, singing his song "Life on Mars."

August, 2016 - Lorde announces her new album is in production stages.

November 6, 2017 - Lorde posts somber note on Facebook, revealing the album is done and that "the party is about to start".

Mid-February, 2017 - Republic Records, her recording label, publishes the date 3/7 under "Confidential Title" that reveals Lorde's sophomore album. This is later cleared.

Late-February, 2017 - Soon after, Lorde posts a strange ad featuring her sipping a drink, eating snacks, in the back of a train. It ends with the dates 3/317 NZ and 3/2/17 NYC. This is followed by two other ads.

March 1, 2017 - Lorde reveals the title of her new single, "Green Light" and green strobe lights start going off all over Auckland, NZ. Lyrics to the song are written in different places, and snippets of the song are played in buildings.

March 2, 2017 - Lorde releases "Green Light" and reveals the name of the sophomore album, Melodrama.

March 9, 2017 - Lorde releases "Liability" and reveals the release date for Melodrama.

March 11, 2017 - Lorde performs on SNL.

April 14, 2017 - Lorde hosts tiny pre Coachella gig, and sings two new songs, Sober and Sober II (Melodrama).

April 16, 2017 - Lorde performs at Coachella and sings new song "Homemade Dynamite".

June 2, 2017 - Lorde releases "Perfect Places".

June 8, 2017 - Lorde announces Melodrama World Tour, beginning in September.

June 9, 2017 - Lorde releases "Sober" in celebration of world tour.

June 15, 2017 - Lorde performs on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

June 16, 2017 - Melodrama is released, and Lorde announces US tour dates.