Lorde’s Top 12 Songs Ranked
Lorde, born Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor, was born on 7 November 1996 in New Zealand. The “Solar Power” singer-songwriter’s mother, Sonja Yelich, is a poet, while her father, Vic O’Connor,…
Lorde performs at “Good Morning America’s” Summer Concert Series at Rumsey Playfield, Central Park on August 20, 2021 in New York City.
Arturo Holmes/Getty ImagesLorde, born Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor, was born on 7 November 1996 in New Zealand. The "Solar Power" singer-songwriter's mother, Sonja Yelich, is a poet, while her father, Vic O'Connor, is a civil engineer. At age five, Lorde joined a drama group, and her mother encouraged her to read a range of genres, which the pop star cited as a lyrical influence. With three albums under her belt, she has cited the 2002 dystopian novel Feed and authors J. D. Salinger, Raymond Carver, and Janet Frame for influencing her songwriting.
Early Beginnings of Lorde's Music Career
In 2009, Lorde and her friend Louis McDonald won their middle school's annual talent show. A few months later, the duo appeared on Jim Mora's Afternoons show on Radio New Zealand. There, they performed covers of Pixie Lott's "Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh)" and Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody." McDonald's father then sent recordings of their Pixie Lott cover "Mama Do" and Duffy's "Warwick Avenue" to Universal Music Group. Lorde was subsequently signed to UMG for development. In 2010, Lorde and McDonald formed a duet called "Ella & Louis" and performed covers live regularly at local venues. The following year, UMG hired a vocal coach to give Lorde singing lessons for a year.
Lorde performed her original songs for the first time in 2011. She and singer-songwriter Joel Little recorded five songs for an extended play, The Love Club. Lorde released the EP through her SoundCloud account for free and was downloaded over 60,000 times. UMG commercially released the EP following that success, which featured her hit single, "Royals." The song helped Lorde rise to prominence after it became a critical and commercial success, selling more than 13 million units worldwide.
At 16 years old, Lorde became the youngest artist to earn a number-one single in the United States since Tiffany in 1987. The track won two Grammys for Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year. Her second studio album, Melodrama, was released in 2016, featuring such hits as "Supercut" and "Liability." The album Solar Power came a few years later in 2021, classified by the artist as her "weed album." Solar Power is a psychedelic pop and indie folk record, marking a departure from her previous synth-heavy, dance-oriented works.
RELATED: Lorde Reveals ‘Painful’ First Reaction To ‘Solar Power’
See below our ranking of Lorde's 12 best songs:
12. Stoned at the Nail Station
Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images"Stoned at the Nail Salon" is a folk ballad where Lorde reflects about growing older and the passage of time. Lorde said of the song as a "rumination on getting older, settling into domesticity, and questioning if you’ve made the right decisions."
11. White Teeth Teens
Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesLorde says of her many mentions of teeth in 'Pure Heroine' as "just a weird obsession that has been with me always. Ironically, I hate dentists." Lyrically, it describes the imperfections of teenagers and the way they present themselves.
10. Solar Power
Zak Kaczmarek/Getty ImagesHer first released song by her album of the same name, "Solar Power" showed us a Lorde we've never seen before. Singing about that infectious, flirtatious summer energy that takes hold of us all.
9. Buzzcut Season
Rich Fury/Getty Images“Buzzcut Season” is rooted in Lorde’s memories of past summers, referring to buzzcuts her friends used to give each other at the beginning of summer while they were young. The song comments heavily on a slowly disappearing innocence as the song’s teenagers awaken to a darker world filled with war and violence.
8. Glory and Gore
Ian Gavan/Getty Images"Glory and Gore" is about our society's obsession and delight with how celebrities are shown in the media, revealing their failures rather than their successes. The electropop song was co-written by Joel Little, with influences of chillwave and hip hop music.
7. Supercut
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty ImagesIn “Supercut,” Lorde dreams of an idealized relationship and looks back on the positive parts of a relationship, but realizes that it's all a delusion. The song features lyrics, "We keep tryin' to talk about us. Slow motion, I'm watchin' our love."
6. Green Light
Theo Wargo/Getty Images“Green Light” is about Lorde’s first major heartbreak and is “the first chapter of the last two wild, fluorescent years” of the New Zealander's life before the song dropped in 2017. The 'Melodrama' track features lyrics, "Sometimes I wake up in a different bedroom. I whisper things, the city sings 'em back to you."
5. Liability
Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesOff of her sophomore album, "Liability" is just Lorde's vocals and a piano throughout the entire track. This mournful ballad finds the singer musing over why her relationships don't last.
4. Tennis Court
Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesDespite the track's title, Lorde doesn't actually play tennis. "I've always been really fascinated by the visual concept of the tennis court," she said. "That was just a symbol that felt kind of nostalgic to me."
3. Ribs
Phil Walter/Getty Images“Ribs” is an ethereal lament about adolescence, and the bittersweet experience of growing up captured in Lorde's smoky voice. The 2013 song features lyrics, "We can talk it so good, we can make it so divine. We can talk it good, how you wish it would be all the time."
2. Team
Arturo Holmes/Getty ImagesThis bittersweet, dreamy track came from a dream Lorde had about teenagers in their own world, "a world with hierarchies and initiations, where the boy who was second in command had acne on his face, and so did the girl who was queen." The 2013 song features lyrics, "So all the cups got broke, shards beneath our feet. But it wasn't my fault and everyone's competing for a love they won't receive."
1. Royals
Steven Ferdman/Getty ImagesTaking the #1 spot has to be "Royals." It's the song that skyrocketed her career in the music industry, and this song truly never gets old. The hit kicks off with lyrics, "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."
