Lorde collaborated with producer Jack Antonoff for her second studio album Melodrama (2017), which received widespread critical acclaim and debuted atop the US Billboard 200.

Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor was born on 7 November 1996 in Takapuna, New Zealand, a suburb of Auckland,[1] to poet Sonja Yelich (Croatian: Jelić) and civil engineer Vic O'Connor.

More specifically, she cites the young adult dystopian novel Feed (2002) by M. T. Anderson as well as authors J. D. Salinger, Raymond Carver and Janet Frame for influencing her songwriting.

[13][14] Lorde and her Belmont team were named the runner-up in the 2009 Kids' Lit Quiz World Finals, a global literature competition for students aged 10 to 14.

[16] McDonald's father then sent his recordings of the duo covering "Mama Do" and Duffy's "Warwick Avenue" to Universal Music Group (UMG)'s A&R executive Scott Maclachlan.

[19] In 2010, Lorde and McDonald formed a duet called "Ella & Louis" and performed covers live on a regular basis at local venues, including cafés in Auckland and the Victoria Theatre in Devonport.

[28] "Royals", the EP's single, helped Lorde rise to prominence after it became a critical and commercial success, selling more than 10 million units worldwide.

[29] It peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making Lorde, then aged 16, the youngest artist to earn a number-one single in the United States since Tiffany in 1987,[30] and has since been certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

[41] Later that month, Lorde was featured on the soundtrack for the 2013 film The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, performing a cover of Tears for Fears' 1985 song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World".

[54] Amidst her solo activities, Lorde joined the surviving members of Nirvana to perform "All Apologies" during the band's induction ceremony at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014.

[55] Band members Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl explained that they selected Lorde because her songs represented "Nirvana aesthetics" for their perceptive lyrics.

[56] Lorde also curated the accompanying soundtrack for the 2014 film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, overseeing the collation of the album's content as well as recording four tracks, including its lead single "Yellow Flicker Beat".

[60][61] At the 2016 Brit Awards in February, Lorde and David Bowie's final touring band gave a tribute performance of his 1971 song "Life on Mars".

[65] The lead single from her second studio album Melodrama, "Green Light",[66] was released in March 2017 to critical acclaim; several publications ranked it as one of the best songs of the year, NME and The Guardian placing it in the top spot on their respective lists.

[68] Later that month, she co-wrote and provided background vocals for American indie pop band Bleachers's song "Don't Take the Money",[69] taken from their 2017 record Gone Now.

[77] To promote Melodrama, Lorde embarked on an international concert tour, the first leg of which took place in Europe in late 2017, featuring Khalid as the supporting act.

[100] In March 2024, Lorde covered Al Green's "Take Me to the River" as the third single from A24 Music's Everyone's Getting Involved: A Tribute to Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense.

[102] In September 2024, Universal Music Publishing executive VP and co-head of U.S. A&R Jennifer Knoepfle, stated that they had "signed Lorde earlier this year" and that the "Girl, So Confusing" remix was her first release as a UMPG song writer.

[103] Lorde grew up listening to American jazz and soul musicians Billie Holiday, Sam Cooke, Etta James, and Otis Redding, whose music she admires for "harvesting their suffering".

[9] She also listened to her parents' favourite records by musicians including Cat Stevens, Neil Young, and Fleetwood Mac in her early years.

"[8] Other inspirations include Katy Perry,[107] Grace Jones,[108] James Blake, Yeasayer, Animal Collective, Bon Iver,[109] the Smiths,[104] Arcade Fire,[9] Laurie Anderson,[10] Kanye West, Prince,[110] and David Bowie.

[17] She also named several authors, including Kurt Vonnegut,[112] Raymond Carver,[113] Wells Tower,[114] Tobias Wolff,[113] Claire Vaye Watkins,[114] Sylvia Plath,[113] Walt Whitman,[113] and T. S. Eliot as lyrical inspirations, particularly noting their sentence structures.

[105] When writing her second album, Melodrama, Lorde took inspiration from the melodic styles of a variety of musicians, including the 1975–especially their song "Somebody Else",[115] Phil Collins,[116] Don Henley,[71] Rihanna,[117] Florence and the Machine,[118] Tom Petty,[119] Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen,[120] and Robyn.

[119] AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine characterised her style as primarily electropop,[126] while scholar Tony Mitchell categorized her as an alt-pop singer.

[141] Regarding her songwriting process, Lorde explained that the foundation to her songs began with the lyrics, which could sometimes stem from a singular word meant to summarise a specific idea she had tried to identify.

[150] Lorde's critiques of mainstream culture on Pure Heroine earned her the title "the voice of her generation",[17] a label she dismissed, saying that "young people have never needed a specialised spokesperson".

[119] Jon Caramanica, writing for The New York Times, credited Lorde for bringing forth a "wave of female rebellion" to mainstream audiences that embraced an "anti-pop" sentiment.

[122] Several analysts also noted Lorde's influence on the music trends of the 2010s,[152] and have credited the singer with paving the way for the current generation of alternative-leaning pop artists.

[154] Her work has influenced various artists, including Billie Eilish,[155] Olivia Rodrigo,[156] Sabrina Carpenter,[157] Conan Gray,[158] and Troye Sivan.

[164] Later that year, the singer was featured in the compilation album The Art of Peace: Songs for Tibet II to raise funds for the preservation of the Tibetan culture.