Lorde wins two Grammys

Ella Yelich-O'Connor, a 17-year-old schoolgirl from New Zealand, won two Grammy awards this week. Ella creates her music under the moniker Lorde, pronounced "Lord".

Lorde rolling stone cover

Ella was nominated for four Grammys:

Of those, she won Song of the Year for Royals and Best Pop Solo Performance.

Best Pop Solo Performance
A category introduced in 2012, an amalgation of the previous Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and Best Pop Instrumental Performance awards. Adele has won the last two years running.

Royals

The hit of 2014

Her song Royals reached number one on the US charts and stayed there for an astounding nine weeks.

Royals examines how pop culture consumerism doesn't always fit into the actual reality of those listening to it. As Lorde sings:

I've never seen a diamond in the flesh
I cut my teeth on wedding rings in the movies
And I'm not proud of my address,
In a torn-up town, no postcode envy
But every song's like gold teeth, grey goose, trippin' in the bathroom
Blood stains, ball gowns, trashin' the hotel room,
We don't care, we're driving Cadillacs in our dreams.
But everybody's like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece.
Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash.
We don't care, we aren't caught up in your love affair.

Ella was 15 when she wrote those lyrics, but she's always been ahead of her peers creatively. When she was 6, her teachers suggested to her parents she get academically tested. The test results declared:

[Her] artwork demonstrates not only a high skill level but a mature perception of the world and a highly original perspective ... Clearly a busy and highly creative mind at work ... demonstrates leadership skills ... sets high standards for herself and does not tolerate mistakes ... Extremely advanced reading and writing, verbal, reasoning, listening and processing skills.

That report was found by Kiwi journalist Darren Levine, who spent six months last year working on an in-depth profile of the country's biggest music export for the Australian music publication Faster Louder.

Taylor Swift

Pop star bows down to Lorde

Another quote from Levine's article seems particularly relevant this week, where Ella noted her power amongst teenager girls:

She's also conscious of the influence she has on other young women. "Taylor Swift is so flawless, and so unattainable, and I don't think it's breeding anything good in young girls. 'I'm never going to be like Taylor Swift, why can't I be as pretty as Lorde?' That's fucking bullshit," she says, straining forward for emphasis, her huge eyes burning.

She may worry about the self esteem of other teenagers, but Ella is also genuinely pals with fellow teen popstar Swift.

Taylor even tweeted a picture of her with her new BFF at the award ceremony:

Taylor Swift and Lorde at Grammys

Along with the photo, Swift tweeted:

"And you know... We're on each other's team. #LORDE #CLEANINGUP #GRAMMYs"