Signed to Universal at just 13-years-old, New Zealander Ella Yelich-O'Connor has been acclaimed for redefining pop music with her soulful, icy, electronic ballads and ambient, left field, R&B anthems. The daughter of poet Sonya Yelich, she took the name Lorde because "it sounded regal" and became a sensation in her homeland when her 2012 debut EP 'The Love Club' produced the startling, minimal art-pop single 'Royals'. Still only 16, the track went on to reach number one in the US, UK, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand, earning comparisons with Lana Del Ray, Kate Bush and James Blake and making Lorde one of the world's hottest new artists. Her debut album 'Pure Heroine', released in 2013, showed a remarkably innovative, literate and elegant young talent and went on to reach number three in the US charts, selling more than 1.5 million copies by the year's end and earning her a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album. In 2014 Lorde recorded the track 'Yellow Flicker Beat' which was used in the soundtrack for the blockbuster film 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1' as well as contributing to several other tracks for the film. She took a step back from the limelight to focus on writing her second album, which she announced would be released in 2017 with the title 'Melodrama'.