Young Aucklander Breaks US Charts

Auckland born singer Ella Yelich O’Connor has broken into the American Billboard Chart despite doing next to no State-side promotion. The sixteen-year-old who goes by the name Lorde became a national sensation in late 2012 when recording on her SoundCloud page went viral. It was later revealed that Universal signed the singer when she was just 12 after seeing a video of a performance at her Takapuna school. In March, she her first single “Royal” debated at number one of the New Zealand charts, and in late June she made her entered the US Billboard chart at number 191. Lorde is signed in the US to Lava/Republic. As Billboard reports: “Lava president Jason Flom first caught wind of Lorde less than six months ago when his friend sent him a link to the teen singer’s SoundCloud page… “I took one listen and was immediately obsessed,” says Flom, who emailed the singer directly to find out more. Soon, Flom was talking on the phone with Lorde, her longtime manager Scott Maclachlan and the singer’s parents about how the high schooler can and should showcase her music outside of New Zealand.” Beyond chart success, Lorde has been creating a buzz on internet with sites like Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, and the Guardian piling praise on the young artist and touting her as one to watch. Lorde is currently working on her first full-length album.